Crystalline Structure Analysis of All-cellulose Nanocomposites Films Based on Corn and Wheat Straw

Abstract

Abstract The cellulose and nanocellulose which was extracted from corn straw and wheat straw was used to fabricate all-cellulose nanocomposites film (ANF). The crystal structure (CS) of ANFs was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). The result shows that cellulose-I and cellulose-II are coexisting within regenerated cellulose films (RCF) and ANFs and can transfer each other with the change of nanocellulose content. The characteristics of cellulose transformation depend on the raw material and preparing method of cellulose. When cellulose is prepared from corn straw, under two preparing methods, the cellulose type tends to transform from cellulose-I to cellulose-II with low nanocellulose content and transform from cellulose-II to cellulose-I with high nanocellulose content. However, when cellulose is prepared from wheat straw, under extracting methods, the cellulose type tends to transform from cellulose-I to cellulose-II with nanocellulose content increase; under acid-alkali methods, the transformation is from cellulose-II to cellulose-I. The crystalline index (CI) of RCFs and ANFs is no obvious regularity, and the either content of cellulose-I or cellulose-II alone cannot determine the CI. Based on above result, the transformation characteristics of cellulose type should affect the property of ANFs, but further research methods and strategies are needed on what the effects are.