Extraction of Nanofibrillated Cellulose from Water Hyacinth Using a High Speed Homogenizer

ABSTRACT

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crasspies) was used as a renewable cellulose source to prepare nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC). Due to the porous structure and low lignin content of water hyacinth, a 10 min-treatment time using the high-speed homogenization was sufficient to disintegrate nanofibers. The average width of the NFC treated for 40 min was 16.8 nm. With longer treatment times, a slight decrease in thermal stability of NFC was found while no changes in the crystallinity index of NFC were detected. Moreover, paper was formed from NFC with respect to mechanical treatment times. Results showed NFC treated with longer treatment times could prepare the paper with lower pore sizes between adjacent fibrils and porosity, resulting in higher wettability and mechanical properties. The contact angle of the 40 min-treated NFC paper was 36.0° while this contact angle result could not be measured from the samples of 0 min-treated NFC due to occurrence of large pores between fibers. The tensile strength of the NFC paper with 40 min-treatment time was ~18 times stronger than that of the 0 min-treated NFC paper. Mechanical energy consumption of the high-speed homogenization used to disintegrate NFC was also compared to that of the industrial defibrillation techniques.

摘要

以凤眼莲 (eichhorniacrasspies) 为可再生纤维素原料, 制备了纳米纤维化纤维素 (NFC). 由于水葫芦的多孔结构和低木质素含量, 使用高速均质处理10分钟足以分解纳米纤维. 处理40min的NFC平均宽度为16.8nm. 随着处理时间的延长, NFC的热稳定性略有下降, 而结晶指数没有变化. 此外, 就机械处理时间而言, 纸张是由NFC形成的. 结果表明, NFC经较长时间处理后, 可制备出相邻纤维间孔径和孔隙率较低的纸张, 具有较高的润湿性和力学性能. 经过40min处理的NFC纸的接触角为36.0°, 但由于纤维间存在大孔隙, 无法从经过0min处理的NFC样品中测量该接触角结果. 处理时间40min的NFC纸的拉伸强度是处理时间为0min的NFC纸的18倍左右. 同时, 还比较了用于分解NFC的高速均匀化的机械能耗和工业除颤技术的机械能耗.

KEYWORDS:

• Water hyacinth
• nanofibrillated cellulose
• mechanical treatment
• cellulose
• pore size
• paper

Keywords:

• 关键词
• 水葫芦
• 纳米纤维纤维素
• 机械处理
• 纤维素
• 孔径 纸张

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, for financial and instrument support. Tanpichai S. would like to thank Learning Institute, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, for financial funding, and to express his great appreciation to his wonderful wife and two energetic and inquisitive sons who always support and ask him a million questions related to nanocellulose especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.