Author(s)

Amanda Ramos Aragão Melo¹, Jose Carlos Dutra Filho², Roberto Pinto Cucinelli Neto¹, Wellington Silva Ferreira³, Bráulio Soares Archanjo⁴, Raphael Verdan Curti⁴, Maria Ines Bruno Tavares¹

¹Instituto de Macromoléculas Professora Eloisa Mano, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Bl J do Centro de Tecnologia, Ilh do Fundao, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
²Instituto SENAI de Inovacao em Biossintéticos e Fibras, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
³Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
⁴Divisao de Metrologia de Materiais, Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia (INMETRO), Duque de Caxias, Brasil.

Cellulose nanocrystals (NCC) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) were obtained by a single step process, with synergy between 64% sulfuric acid hydrolysis and high shear from ultra-turrax stirring, which is an advantageous process for disintegrating cellulose microcrystalline and also may improve the hydrolysis process. The surface modification on the cellulose was performed by the sol-gel process, in which the sulfate groups from hydrolysis were replaced by nanoparticles of zinc oxide, which led to the increase of up to 54°C Tonset, according to thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results. The morphology and crystallinity degree were characterized by Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction. In addition, the ZnO band was observed in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, furthermore, the change in the zeta potential confirmed the cellulose modification. The changes in the values of proton spin-spin relaxation time for the systems showing the confined hydrogen in the rigid domains, confirmed the results observed with the aforementioned techniques, for both cellulose after hydrolysis and ZnO modified cellulose, suggesting that ZnO disrupted crystal formation in cellulose.

Cellulose Nanocrystal, Cellulose Nanofibril, Nano Zinc Oxide, Acid Hydrolysis, Sol-Gel

Melo, A. , Filho, J. , Neto, R. , Ferreira, W. , Archanjo, B. , Curti, R. and Tavares, M. (2020) Effect of Ultra-Turrax on Nanocellulose Produced by Acid Hydrolysis and Modified by Nano ZnO by Sol-Gel Method. Materials Sciences and Applications, 11, 150-166. doi: 10.4236/msa.2020.112009.