Sustainable method to prepare nanocellulose by using deep eutectic solvents with enhanced stability and strcuctural uniformity

In this study, an attempt was made to prepare nanocellulose between three feedstocks with different particle sizes and four different acidities of DES and to find the pairing that would ensure high yield, good particle size distribution, stability, structural uniformity and low energy consumption for the preparation of nanocellulose. The effect of DES acidity and feedstock size on the prepared nanocellulose was also derived.

The results showed that the greater the acidity of carboxylic acid DES, the smaller the effect of this scale change on the yield, and the higher the yield of nanocellulose, the smaller the particle size, the more uniform the particle size distribution, and the higher the crystallinity. The nanocellulose after this treatment also had carboxylation effects and different esterification due to the acidity differences of deep eutectic solvent and the structural differences of raw materials.