Effects of Catalysts on Preparation of Microcrystalline Cellulose from Cellulose Acid Hydrolysis

The hydrolysis differences of HCl and H2 SO4 for cellulose aggregated structure and the effect of catalysts on cellulose amorphous region selective hydrolysis in the process of preparation of microcrystalline cellulose were investigated. Thus, the fiber form, crystallization characteristics, crystal face indices and the microstructure of hydrocellulose were analyzed and characterized in this study. Fiber form analysis showed that HCl could improve the hydrolysis for cellulose. When H+concentration increased to 2.0 mol·L-1, the mean fibers length reduced from 656 μm to 300 μm, the kink rate and curl index fell to 9.85% and 11.22% from 46.45% and 15.53% respectively. XRD analysis indicated that the crystallinity of hydrocellulose increased from 64.53% to 76.10% and 69.61% catalyzed by HCl and H2 SO4 respectively, the HCl was more advantageous to improve the selective hydrolysis for cellulose amorphous region.