Studies on cellulose nanocrystals isolated from groundnut shells

Saleheen Bano; Yuvraj Singh Negi

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.10.069

Studies on cellulose nanocrystals isolated from groundnut shells

Carbohydr Polym. 2017 Feb 10:157:1041-1049. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.10.069. Epub 2016 Oct 24.

Authors

Saleheen Bano¹, Yuvraj Singh Negi²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Polymer and Process Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Saharanpur Campus, Saharanpur 247001, India.
² Department of Polymer and Process Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Saharanpur Campus, Saharanpur 247001, India. Electronic address: yuvrajnegi@gmail.com.

PMID: 27987804
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.10.069

Abstract

Today, various renewable biomass resources are accepted as waste material and are mostly burnt or used as cattle feed. The commercial value of these wastes can be increased by utilising them in production of nanomaterials. So, the present work was conducted for isolation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from groundnut shells which are produced annually as waste in large quantity (∼7 million tons). The structural, thermal, morphological & elemental analyses were assessed through corresponding techniques. Light Scattering studies were performed to analyse more likely weight average molecular weight (M_w) & radius of radius (R_g). The high M_w ∼10⁵g/mol obtained for CNCs in lithium chloride (LiCl)/N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) system, was an interesting feature which gets affected by LiCl and polymer concentrations. Solution with high polymer and low LiCl concentration was found to show higher values of M_w & R_g.

Keywords: Cellulose nanocrystals; Groundnut shells; Static light scattering.