Extraction of nano-crystalline cellulose for development of aerogel: Structural, morphological and antibacterial analysis

Yash Vishnoi; Alok Kumar Trivedi; M K Gupta; Harinder Singh; Sanjay Mavinkere Rangappa; Suchart Siengchin

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23846

Extraction of nano-crystalline cellulose for development of aerogel: Structural, morphological and antibacterial analysis

Heliyon. 2023 Dec 18;10(1):e23846. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23846. eCollection 2024 Jan 15.

Authors

Yash Vishnoi¹, Alok Kumar Trivedi¹, M K Gupta¹, Harinder Singh², Sanjay Mavinkere Rangappa³, Suchart Siengchin³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj 211004, U.P. India.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj 211004, U.P. India.
³ Natural Composites Research Group Lab, Department of Materials and Production Engineering, The Sirindhorn International Thai-German Graduate School of Engineering (TGGS), King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB), Bangkok, Thailand.

Abstract

In the present decades, nanocellulose has been very popular in the field of nanotechnology and is receiving much attention from researchers because of its advantageous physicochemical properties, high aspect ratio, and high specific strength and modulus. The available non-eco-friendly conventional methods for the extraction of nano-crystalline cellulose (NCC) use highly concentrated chemicals and are time-consuming as well. The present adopted cost-effective method for the extraction of nano-crystalline cellulose involves minimum usage of chemicals and is environmentally friendly and relatively fast compared to other conventional methods. The nano-crystalline cellulose from sisal (NCC-S) fibers were extracted by steam explosion-assisted mild concentrated chemical treatments followed by mechanical grinding. The Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterization confirmed the size of extracted NCC-S. A high aspect ratio was observed as 19.23, which signifies it could be a promising reinforcing material in developing nanocomposites for advanced applications. An increase in crystallinity and the removal of amorphous materials for NCC-S were confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, respectively. Antibacterial study shows that NCC-S did not show any antibacterial properties against E. coli and S. aureus. The calculated yield of extracted nanocellulose was about 50 %. The aerogel with a porosity of 95.1 % and a density of 0.075 g/cm³ was prepared by vacuum freeze-drying method using extracted nanocellulose and chitosan. The cross-linking network structure and thermal stability of the aerogel were also confirmed by FTIR and TGA analysis respectively.

Keywords: Aerogel; Antibacterial properties; Biomass; Facile approach; Nano-crystalline cellulose; Structural properties.