Preparation and characterization of spherical cellulose nanocrystals with high purity by the composite enzymolysis of pulp fibers

The spherical cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) with high purity were prepared, the processes included composite enzymolysis of pulp fibers and the purification of product. The impurities in the crude product CNCs were analyzed with FTIR, coomassie brilliant blue-G250 and ionic chromatography. The pure CNCs were characterized with SEM, XRD, DLS and TGA. The results indicated that the crude CNCs was flocculated and washed twice with a dilute acid solution (pH = 2) to get pure spherical CNCs, the purity was approximate 99.99%. The obtained pure spherical CNCs had a narrow particle size distribution with diameter 15–40 nm. FTIR and XRD analyses proved that the crystal phase of the spherical CNCs did not change, but the crystallinity decreased slightly compared with pulp fibers. The thermal degradation showed that the spherical CNCs had better thermal stability than one from other methods, and the temperature of maximum weight loss rate (Tmax) was 329.2 °C.