Lignocellulosic nanofibers from triticale straw: the influence of hemicelluloses and lignin in their production and properties

TERRÉS, Q.; EHMAN, N.; VALLEJOS, M.E.; AREA, M.C.; DELGADO-AGUILAR, M.; MUTJE, P.

CARBOHYDRATE POLYMERS

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2017 vol. 163 p. 20 - 27

0144-8617

Cellulose nanofibers (CNF) have become a topic of great interest during the last years. Most of the scientific publications on this matter deal with the production of CNF through chemical pretreatments, making the process more expensive and calling into question the sustainability thereof. These high costs hinder the useof such nanostructured cellulosic fibers in mature sectors such as papermaking.In this sense, some works have been dealing with the feasibility of using fully mechanical methods for CNF production recently. However, the obtained properties were so far from those CNF obtained by either chemical or enzymatic methods. This work attempts to determine the influence of hemicellulose and lignin content in the production of CNF from triticale straws. Triticale straws were digested and then gradually delignified, preserving as much hemicellulosesas possible. The obtained lignocellulosic nanofibers (LCNF) were characterizedand used as paper strength additive, observing that depending on the balance between hemicellulose and lignin they were able to impart different levels ofmechanical properties to paper. Test-liner grade paper was used to avoid theproblem generated by the decrease in brightness that lignin contained in theobtained LCNF imparted to bleached papers. Results showed that LCNF fromtriticale straws are a good alternative to those obtained from bleached woodfibers. The key role of lignin and hemicellulose was also demonstrated,obtaining LCNF with the same paper reinforcing potential than TEMPO-oxidized CNF.