Production of CNC from agro-waste biomass (maize shells) as a potential reinforcement in bio-nanocomposites: Extraction, modification, and characterization study

Abstract

Cellulose nano crystal (CNC) has been considered as multifunctional biopolysaccharide due to its outstanding properties and biodegradable nature. CNC was derived from agro-waste namely maize shells by different treatment like soaping, alkali treatment, bleaching, and acid hydrolysis. Maize shells were chosen as it is considered a waste material that has no use rather burning. While burning of these releases exposes a considerable amount of environmentally airborne pollutants which are responsible for global warming. However, the properties of the extracted CNC were characterized by using FTIR-ATR, XRD,TGA,DTA,DTG, FESEM, DLS, UV–vis-NIR, and Zeta-potential analysis. The removal of hemicellulose and lignin were expelled from CNC asserted by FTIR-ATR. FESEM was used to capture microstructure and surface morphology. TGA/DTA/DTG was used for measurement of thermal stability. Phase composition, crystal structure/exact atomic position were analyzed by XRD measurement. The CNC was found more thermal stability (exposing 40 % residual mass at 600 °C), high crystallinity index (76.09±0.91 %) with good structural purity and smaller particle size around 100 nm along with negative zeta potential. Due to these outstanding properties the newly produced CNC could be beneficially used as a potential reinforcement in bionanocomposite fabrication for various uses in biomedical, industrial, and engineering sectors for the development of sustainable environment.