Facile preparation of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) with a high yield and excellent dispersibility via succinic acid hydrolysis and NaClO2 oxidation

An efficient and low-cost approach to preparing CNFs with succinic acid hydrolysis and NaClO 2 oxidation is explored. High-temperature-short-time hydrolysis can depolymerize the cellulose, whereas the dispersibility of the CNFs is hugely enhanced by NaClO 2 oxidation under alkaline condition. The degradation of cellulose in succinic acid hydrolysis follows first-order reaction kinetics and is severely influenced by the hydrolysis temperature, moreover, the molecular chains of the cellulose are seriously cracked under the optimized condition. The NaClO 2 oxidation greatly improves the zeta potential (−36.2 mV) and the dispersibility of the CNFs. The obtained CNFs have an ultimate yield of 94.6%, and the diameter distribution is mainly within 20–40 nm. In addition, some amount of carboxyl groups in the cellulose will be instead of the hydroxyl groups , and the crystallinity of the CNFs is significantly increased.