Valorização dos resíduos da colheita de milho através da produção de nanocelulose

Abstract

The waste revaluation is a topic of interest in science and has been widely explored to produce nanocellulose, showing the unlimited application potential and a production growing. This work evaluates the nanocellulose obtention from high cellulose content corn crop waste (stalk, cob and husk). To produce nanocellulose, were chosen the chemical isolation and bleaching and fibrillation by three different times (6h, 9h and 12h) of mechanical grinding. Nanocellulose were evaluated through the dynamic light scattering, zeta potential, infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectrometry, and X-ray diffraction. The isolation and bleaching showed to be too intense, reducing the relative crystallinity (RC). Fibrillation was independent in relation to the RC; the increase in the grinding time generated different responses, increasing and/or decreasing the RC. Also, the samples demonstrated nanometric scale sizes (107 – 335 nm of hydrodynamic radius) and a certain rate of agglomeration due to their chemical constitution. The 9h milling for the husk sample was the best processing condition, generating uniform samples, satisfactory RC (63.87%), hydrodynamic radius average of 121 nm, zeta potential of -38 mV. These materials and the nanocellulose obtention process evaluated were efficient and with potential for real applications on a larger scale.