Cellulose nanocrystal extracted from date palm fibre: Morphological, structural and thermal properties

Date palm fibre is a sustainable biomass as well as an alternative biomaterial for producing cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), which was extensively used in different application fields by attributing to high surface reactivity during fabrication process. In this work, combined sulfuric/acetic acid hydrolysis of 10/90, 20/80 and 30/70 (wt %/wt %) were employed to extract DPCNC-I, DPCNC-II and DPCNC-III, respectively from date palm fibre. From structural examination, rod-like crystal particle feature was observed for each nanoparticle sample. In terms of physicochemistry, pure cellulose component was revealed by DPCNC-II and DPCNC-III. The crystallinity degree had also been enhanced for each nanoparticle, particularly for DPCNC-III with the remarkable crystallinity of 84.2 %. For thermal behavior, DPCNC-III exhibited the greatest endurance towards heat degradation in among those CNC samples. In summary, date palm CNC could be a potential filling agent applied in various industrial fields.