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Updated: Aug 27, 2025
Highly Stable, Functional Hairy Nanoparticles and Biopolymers from Wood Fibers: Towards Sustainable Nanotechnology
Published on: July 20, 2016
Sustainable preparation of surface functionalized cellulose nanocrystals and their application for Pickering
Hui Wang1, Meng Zhang2, Jinguang Hu3
1Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China; Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary T2N 4H9, Canada; State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.
Abstract:
Herein, a highly efficient and sustainable approach, namely HCl-catalyzed para-toluene sulfonic acid/Formic acid (p-TsOH/FA) hydrolysis was reported to produce surface functionalized cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). The optimized CNCs showed a high yield (79.6 %), high crystallinity (70.6 %) and high thermal stability (maximal weight loss temperature around 350 °C). In addition, the as-prepared CNCs possess excellent ability to stabilize oil-water due to the introduction of functional formyl groups, which could be promising stabilizers for Pickering emulsions (PEs). At a fixed oil-water ratio (2:8, v:v), the CNCs with the concentration of 0.5 wt% to 2.0 wt% could stabilize peanut oil to make PEs, and the emulsion droplets were <5 μm in diameter. In addition, the stability of the PEs at different temperature, pH, ionic strength, and long storage time were studied. The results indicated that the obtained CNCs could be sustainable and superior stabilizers for PEs.
