Nanocellulose isolation from Amorpha fruticosa by an enzyme-assisted pretreatment

Abstract

Nanocellulose has many advantages, such as a wide range of sources of raw materials, renewability, biodegradability, high aspect ratio and large specific surface area. It can be potentially used in medicine, electronics, information technology, energy industry, aerospace and some other high-technological fields.  For preparation of nanocellulose, it is particularly important to separate nanocellulose from  raw materials by an environment-friendly method with environmental protection awareness. Consequently, we here report an effective and environmental friendly method to isolate nanocellulose from a shrub plant, i.e., Amorpha fruticosa Linn. Firstly, the plant fiber is pretreated with chemicals to remove lignin and hemicellulose; then the derived purified cellulose is pretreated with enzyme hydrolysis, followed by slight treatment of high-pressure homogenization. The results showed that with the assistance of enzyme pretreatment, effective isolation of nanocellulose could be achieved,  resulting in materials with a uniform diameter distribution and an average value of about 10 nm.  The aspect ratio of the derived nanocellulose is greater than 1000. Such results showed that the method was green and effective for nanocellulose isolation, and the derived biomaterial as a unique biocompatible and high-strength biomass nanomaterial could be used in biomedical, environmental protection and other fields.