Cellulose nanocrystals obtained from office waste paper and their potential application in PET packing materials

Wanqing Lei; Changqing Fang; Xing Zhou; Qian Yin; Shaofei Pan; Rong Yang; Donghong Liu; Yun Ouyang

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.10.059

Cellulose nanocrystals obtained from office waste paper and their potential application in PET packing materials

Carbohydr Polym. 2018 Feb 1:181:376-385. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.10.059. Epub 2017 Oct 18.

Authors

Wanqing Lei¹, Changqing Fang², Xing Zhou³, Qian Yin⁴, Shaofei Pan⁴, Rong Yang⁴, Donghong Liu⁵, Yun Ouyang⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China.
² School of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China; Faculty of Printing, Packing Engineering and Digital Media Technology, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China. Electronic address: fcqxaut@163.com.
³ School of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China; Faculty of Printing, Packing Engineering and Digital Media Technology, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China.
⁴ Faculty of Printing, Packing Engineering and Digital Media Technology, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China.
⁵ Fuli Institute of Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hang Zhou 310058, PR China. Electronic address: dhliu@zju.edu.cn.
⁶ Beijing Key Laboratory of Packaging and Printing New Technology & Key Laboratory of Printing Environmental Protection Technology, China Academy of Printing Technology, Beijing 100000, PR China.

PMID: 29253986
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.10.059

Abstract

Annually a tremendous amount of office waste paper (OWP) is discarded creating environmental pollution. Therefore, how to make this paper from waste to wealth and use it in new approaches have become a meaningful and challenging work. In this work, OWP being a cellulose rich biomass was employed for the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) by acid hydrolysis with different acid concentrations but without subjecting OWP to alkali and bleaching treatments. The testing results showed that CNCs prepared using sulfuric acid concentration of 59% with respect to OWP had the highest crystallinity and this concentration was the transition concentration for the production of opaque CNCs film with convoluted nanofibers to transparent one with orientated nanofibers. Besides, CNCs prepared using acid concentration of 65% coated on PET sheet not only had a better water vapor barrier property but also was on a par with the transparency of PET, which was hopeful to be used as coating materials in packaging materials.

Keywords: Cellulose nanocrystals; Coating materials; Office waste paper; Orientated nanofibers; Transparent cellulose film.