Preparation of Cellulose Nanofibrils from Bamboo Pulp by Mechanical Defibrillation for Their Applications in Biodegradable Composites

There is a growing interest in cellulose nanofibrils from renewable sources for various industrial applications. However, there is a lack of information on cellulose arising from bamboo pulps. Nanofibrils from refined bamboo pulps, including bleached, unbleached, and unrefined/unbleached, were obtained by mechanical defibrillation for use in biodegradable composites. The influence of industrial processes, such as pulping and refining of unbleached pulps, as well as of alkali pretreatments and bleaching of refined pulps, on the chemical composition of the samples was analyzed. Morphological, structural, thermal, optical and viscometric properties were investigated as a function of the number of passages of refined/bleached suspensions through a defibrillator. For the unbleached suspensions, the effects of refining and bleaching on the properties of nanofibrils were evaluated, fixing the number of passages through the defibrillator. Microscopic studies demonstrated that nanoscale cellulose fibers were obtained from both pulps, with a higher yield for the refined/bleached and refined/unbleached pulp, at the expense of the unbleached/unrefined pulps. The study showed that, in addition to the effectiveness of the pre-treatments, there was an increase in the production efficiency of nanofibrils, as well as in the transparency of the bleached suspensions, while viscosity, thermal stability and crystallinity had reduced levels as the number of passages through the defibrillator increased, showing a gradual improvement in the transition from the micro-to the nano-scale. The present study contributed to the different methods that are available for the production of bamboo cellulose nanofibrils, which can be used in the production of biodegradable composites for various applications.