Acetic acid enhanced purification of crude cellulose from sugarcane bagasse: Structural and morphological characterization

Crude cellulose prepared from alkali-extracted sugarcane bagasse was subjected to a rapid purification treatment with a mixture of 80% acetic acid-68% nitric acid (10/1, v/v) at 120 °C for 15 min. The yields of the preparations decreased slightly from 57.3%-58.6% in the crude cellulose preparations to 50.3%-51.9% in the purified cellulose samples. The purification treatment removed large amounts of resistant hemicelluloses strongly associated to the cellulose. XRD analysis revealed that the structure of both the crude and purified cellulose was cellulose I. Compared to the crude cellulose, a slight increase in the crystallinity index of the purified cellulose was observed by FTIR, XRD, and CP/MAS 13C NMR analyses. In addition, SEM showed that the macrofibril surface of the crude cellulose was almost free of trenches, but many terraces, steps, and kinks formed in the preparations after the purification