Physicochemical Characterization of Nanocellulose: Composite, Crystallinity, Morphology

Abstract

Cellulose is one of the most important organic polymers in terms of its production and industrial applications. Cellulose found in nature is obtained from a big assortment of natural sources such as plant fibers, tunicates, and also obtained from bacteria. It makes it the most abundant organic polymer on the earth. Nanocellulose is a material derived from cellulose. For successful applications of nanocellulose, specific knowledge of properties by characterization is fundamental. Different morphologies of nanocellulose combined with biodegradable polymers extend the applications by increasing their mechanical properties. Some applications are biofilters, biosensor strips, tissue engineering, aerospace industry, automotive components, electrical industry, lubricants, heavy metal removal from aquatic media, lithium-ion batteries, and so forth. The crystallinity properties of nanocellulose studied by X-ray diffraction are fundamental to conjugate them with composites. These studies accompanied by other spectroscopic techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance, Raman, and Infra-Red give precisely additional structural characteristics. Morphology characterization by atomic force, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy becomes important since nanocellulose originates from bottom-up or top-down methodologies. The morphology and dimensions vary according to parameters used in the direct synthesis from cellulose. The morphologies may be nanowhiskers, nanofibers, or bacterial nanocellulose, which are different from each other.