Over the period, cellulosic biomass and wood were used as a source of energy, clothing, construction material. Cellulose can be modified into microcrystalline and nanocrystalline form for better mechanical and antimicrobial properties. Wood contains 40 to 60% cellulose whereas cotton, 90%. In nanotechnology, the material is disintegrated to have at least one dimension in nanoscale (1 to 100 nanometre). Nanosized particles have unique properties. Nanocellulose can be isolated from cellulosic materials that are abundantly available in nature. Cellulose nanocrystals can be obtained by alkaline treatment, bleaching, hydrolysis, and dewatering route. The crystallinity index of derived CNC varies from 52 to 99%. Sugarcane peel fiber was reported to have a maximum of 99.2% crystallinity. Combination of CNC with other materials, this can yield better and desired properties. Water sensibility and permeability can be minimized for their application in films by adding citric acid in the structure.
Top1. Introduction
Agricultural sector is the backbone of economy of developing nations like India. Strengthening farmers by increasing value of their product can boost agricultural economy. Waste generated in agroindustry in upstream and downstream processing can be converted into useful product (Ilyas et al., 2020). Cellulose is abundantly available component in the agricultural biomass (Huang et al., 2019; Martínez-Luévanos, 2021). Over the period of time, the cellulosic biomass, wood was used as a source of energy, clothing, construction material for supporting the structures (Aziz et al., 2020). Modern applications of cellulose include cellophane films, dietary fibers, and advanced chemicals (Shojaeiarani et al., 2021). Sustainable synthesis of products from raw feedstocks to yield high value products can serve the purpose of waste minimization (Trache et al., 2020). Within cellulose fibrils, there are crystalline and amorphous regions (Alves et al., 2015). Cellulose was known to human being from ancient times (Ioelovich, 2017). Cellulose can be modified by chemical and mechanical methods to get customised properties (Abitbol et al., 2016). Materials, when broken into nano scale exhibits special properties. Cellulose, synthesized as nanocellulose, thus has some unique properties (Moon et al., 2013). Important drawbacks of cellulose are its hygroscopic nature and lack of melting properties(Composites et al., 2017). The modification of cellulose into nanocellulose brings about better surface and mechanical properties (Composites et al., 2017; Saastamoinen et al., 2012). Apart from plants, cellulose is present in algae, fungi and bacteria (George & Sabapathi, 2015). One third of plants anatomy consists of cellulose (Camacho et al., 2017). Cellulose with an at least one of its dimensions equal to or less than 100 nm is termed as nanocellulose (Ullah et al., 2021). Cellulose also finds application in biosensors, membranes, polymers, etc. (Jasim et al., 2017; Shoukat et al., 2019; Yan et al., 2014). It can be modified into microcrystalline and nanocrystalline form for better mechanical and antimicrobial properties. Also it can be combined with other polymers to yield customized properties (Battista, 1950; Battista & Smith, 1962).
Wood contains 40 to 60% cellulose whereas cotton, 90% (Yang, 2016). Cellulose has two anhydro glucose units coupled by β-1,4 glycosidic linkage between anomeric carbon C1 and an oxygen atom, C4. In nanotechnology, the material is disintegrated to have at least one dimension in nanoscale (1 to 100 nanometre). Nanosized particles have unique properties. Nanocellulose can be isolated from cellulosic materials that are available abundantly in nature (Yang, 2016). Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and cellulose fibers(CNF) are two forms of nano-cellulose (NC).