Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-1879-z

REVIEW PAPER

Sugarcane bagasse fiber and its cellulose nanocrystals

for polymer reinforcement and heavy metal adsorbent:
a review
R. Z. Khoo . W. S. Chow . H. Ismail

Received: 8 March 2018 / Accepted: 28 May 2018 / Published online: 2 June 2018
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract The development of cellulose and nanocrystals (synthesized from agriculture waste)
nanocellulose based materials have been a subject of while contribute to the sustainable development of
intense research in recent decades due to their the related products.
renewability, high strength and stiffness, as well as
Graphical abstract
environmental friendliness. Advancements in indus-
trial biotechnology provide ample opportunities for
economic utilization of cellulosic agro-residues such
as sugarcane bagasse. Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) is an
abundant fibrous waste of the sugarcane industry and it
is normally used for animal feed, enzymes, paper and
biofuel conversion application. Due to its high cellu-
lose content (40–50%), SCB is a good source of
cellulose fiber for the synthesis of cellulose nanocrys-
tals. This review reports recent developments, current
results and trends in the field of sugarcane bagasse
fiber (SCBF) and sugarcane bagasse fiber cellulose
nanocrystals (SBFCNC) as a green material in the
manufacturing of composite materials and heavy
metal adsorbent. Herein, the preparation methods
and properties of the SCBF and SBFCNC composites
are discussed. The reinforcing abilities of the SCBF Keywords Sugarcane bagasse  Cellulose
and SBFCNC in various polymers are summarized. nanocrystals  Composite materials  Heavy metal
Also, the potential applications of SBFCNC as heavy adsorbent
metal adsorbent are documented. These demonstrated
that we can widen the application of cellulose
Introduction

R. Z. Khoo  W. S. Chow (&)  H. Ismail
School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering,
Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia
e-mail: shyang@usm.my
Agricultural and forestry residues are wastes resulting
from industrial and economical activities. Recent
research and development has brought a new life to

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these materials as their economic values had been
realized and being utilized in various industrial
biotechnologies. One prominent example is sugarcane
bagasse (Saccharum officinarum), a fibrous residue
originated from sugarcane after its juice extraction.
Generally, SCB holds the potential to become an
important raw material for applications ranging from
animal feed, enzymes, paper and biofuel conversion
(Pereira et al. 2011; Chimenez et al. 2013). Owing to
their sustainability, relatively low production cost and
abundant availability, SCB was used to produce high
quality green products such as green janitorial supplies
(e.g., toilet paper, towels, tissue) manufactured by
Green Cleaning Products, LLC Company (USA) and
biodegradable tableware products (e.g., bowls, plates,
clamshells, container) manufactured by True Choice
Pack, LLC Company (USA). The cellulose, hemicel-
lulose, lignin, rind, comrind, pith and ash are the
components of SCB wastes that are being used in
production of composite materials, additives in con-
crete manufacturing and ceramic refractory products
(Loh et al. 2013). The aim of this review is to provide
an overview of current literatures on studies that have
been undertaken to explore the properties and poten-
tial application of SCB and its cellulose nanocrystals
for polymer reinforcement as well as heavy metal
adsorbent.
Sugarcane bagasse
Sugarcane bagasse is produced in a large scale, * 540
million metric tons per year basis globally (Bezerra
and Ragauskas 2016) with the top-ten producing
countries in Brazil (739,300 thousand metric tons per
year (TMT/year)), India (341,200 TMT/year), China
(125,500 TMT/year), Thailand (100,100 TMT/year),
Pakistan (63,800 TMT/year), Mexico (61,200 TMT/
year), Colombia (34,900 TMT/year), Indonesia
(33,700 TMT/year), Phillipines (31,900 TMT/year)
and United States (27,900 TMT/year), respectively.
According to Malaysian Department of Agricultural,
in the year 2015, the total plantation area of sugarcane
in Malaysia is 1739 hectare and the production is
approximately 28,223 metric tons. Based on this data,
bagasse is easily available because an average of 32%
bagasse is produced from every ton of processed
sugarcane (Lee and Mariatti 2008). Typically, SCB is
composed of cellulose (40–50%), hemicellulose
(25–35%) and lignin (15–35%) (Gonçalves et al.
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Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
2005). It is important to note that the fractionated
components of SCB, i.e., cellulose, hemicellulose and
lignin vary according to its extraction method.
According to Loh et al. (2013), sodium hydroxide
(NaOH) extraction will yield 56.1% cellulose, 8.8%
hemicellulose and 4.9% lignin while sulfuric acid
(H2SO4) will yield 63.6% cellulose, 0% hemicellulose
and 22.5% lignin. A comprehensive review on the
biotechnological potential of SCB has been reported
by nee’Nigam et al. (2009). It was documented that the
cellulose content of SCB (40 wt%) is considerably
higher than many other agro-industrial residues such
as corn cobs (33.7 wt%), wheat straw (32.9 wt%), rice
straw (36.2 wt%) and corn stalks (35 wt%). Accord-
ingly, high cellulose content of SCB makes it a
favourable green reinforcement material in polymer
composites such as polylactic acid (PLA) and high
density polyethylene (HDPE) (Khoo and Chow 2015;
Boontima et al. 2014; Mulinari et al. 2009a, b).
Sugarcane bagasse treatment
Since bagasse have a high proportion of cellulose,
alkaline pretreatment followed by bleaching is applied
in order to remove other components such as lignin
(Moubarik et al. 2013a, b) to produce sugarcane
bagasse fiber (SCBF). Mercerization treatment is the
common way of removing the surface impurities of
fibers, where fibers were treated with sodium hydrox-
ide (NaOH) solution (Loh et al. 2013). Besides
removing impurities, alkalization is also able to
improve fiber/matrix adhesion, tensile and flexural
properties of the composites, although the composites
experience a reduction in impact strength. Palamae
et al. (2014) stated that alkaline pre-treatment is an
effective way of delignification as it removes nearly all
of the lignin present in fiber. This treatment removes
acetyl group and various uronic acid substitutions in
hemicelluloses which can ease the accessibility of
hemicelluloses and cellulose to hydrolytic enzymes. It
is known that swelling of cellulose fiber occurs during
alkaline pre-treatment. When salvation and saphoni-
cation reaction take place, it decreases the degree of
polymerization and crystallinity. As a result, internal
surface area of fiber will be increased and lignin
structure of fiber will be disrupted, which caused by
breakage of the a-ether linkages between lignin and
carbohydrates. Hence, alkali pre-treatment can be
considered as one of the most effective method among
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
other chemical pre-treatments for breaking the ester
bonds between lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose
(Behera et al. 2014). Several researchers found that
alkalization and bleaching treatment is not only able to
enhance the fiber surface and bonding, but at the same
time it can increase the structural material content, due
to the removal of non-structural parts of the fibers
(Dittenber and GangaRao 2012). Moubarik et al.
(2013a, b) treated SCB with aqueous NaOH solution
in order to isolate the cellulose of bagasse, before
adding into low density polyethylene (LDPE). They
found that the mechanical properties of the composites
were enhanced, with a 72 and 85% gain in Young’s
modulus and flexural modulus, respectively. This is
attributed to the good interface adhesion between
cellulose fibers and the polymer matrix.
Sugarcane bagasse fiber cellulose nanocrystals
(SBFCNC)
Being one of the most abundant natural polymer
resources, cellulose can be identified as a polysaccha-
ride consists of a linear chain of several hundred to
many thousands of b(1 ? 4) linked glycosidic
bonds, regarded as cellobiose. Each cellobiose mono-
mer bears three hydroxyl groups, which have strong
tendency to form hydrogen bonds. They play a major
role in configuring the crystalline packaging and
determine physical properties of cellulose. A general
disadvantage of cellulosic materials is their lack of
uniformity, less durable and incompatibility with
Fig. 1 Extraction of cellulose nanocrystals from sugarcane bagasse
4305
hydrophobic polymer which limit its applications in
polymer reinforcement (Scaffaro et al. 2017). Fortu-
nately, these limitations of cellulose can be overcome
using the cellulose elementary building block called
nanocellulose (Kalia et al. 2013). Nanocellulose
derived from cellulose-based material has attracted
attention from researchers due to its light weight, high
strength and stiffness. This nanomaterial is being
regarded as a next generation material needed for
future high end applications (Hokkanen et al. 2013).
Nanocellulose is a general term for cellulosic mate-
rials that have at least one dimension in nanometer
range. Native cellulose (cellulose I) extracted by
conventional bleaching treatment of lignocellulosic
fibers is the material used in the application of
cellulosic nanofillers. Nanocellulose can be further
classified into three main groups depending on their
size, purpose and production methods. The three
groups of nanocellulose are cellulose nanocrystals
(CNC), cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) and bacterial
nanocellulose (BNC). Both CNCs and CNFs origi-
nated from wood or agricultural crops/wastes while
BNCs can be produced from micro-organism such as
Gluconacetobacter xylinus (BC) (Gatenholm and
Klemm 2010). Figure 1 represents the scheme of the
extraction of CNC from SCB. First step in purification
of cellulose involves raw fibers being grinded and then
subjected to alkaline and bleaching treatments. Elim-
ination of lignin and hemicellulose occurs during these
steps. The bleached fibers will undergo acid hydrolysis
to produce CNC while fibers that undergo mechanical
disintegration will produce CNF.
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Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC)
In the past few years, there is a drastic increase of
literature published regarding utilization of natural
waste fiber as a main source for CNC extraction. This
is due to fact that forest or agricultural residues are
more economical, lower energy consumption and at
the same time, it can turn waste into value added
materials. CNC can be extracted from various types of
waste fibers. For example, CNC was extracted from
sugarcane bagasse (Mandal and Chakrabarty 2011),
mango seeds and kraft pulp (Henrique et al. 2015), jute
fiber (Thomas et al. 2015), banana and pineapple leaf
(Abraham et al. 2011) and Ushar seed (widely
available in West Africa, Asia and other tropical
areas) (Oun and Rhim 2016).
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) also be referred as
crystalline nanocellulose (CNC), nanocrystalline cel-
lulose (NCC) (Peng et al. 2011), cellulose nanowhis-
kers (CNW) (Oksman et al. 2006) and rod like
cellulose (de Souza Lima and Borsali 2004). Typi-
cally, CNC originates from wood, algae (Le Bras et al.
2015), cotton (de Morais Teixeira et al. 2010), hemp,
flax, wheat straw, rice straw, mulberry bark, ramie,
microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) (Cho and Park
2011), tunicin, and bacteria. In lab scale production,
microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) having dimension in
the range of 10–50 lm, is often used as a starting
material to prepare CNC. Although MCC is also being
generated using acid hydrolysis, a distinct interpreta-
tion is needed to differentiate MCC and CNC as
production of MCC involves a wider reaction window
(Eichhorn 2011). Besides, CNC is different compared
to cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) or microfibrillated
cellulose (MFC). The latter is generated in the form
of long individualized fibrils by purely chemical
means (Abdul Khalil et al. 2014) or chemical/
mechanical means (Zimmermann et al. 2010). For
the sake of clarity, the term CNC and CNF are used
throughout this review paper for the abbreviation of
cellulose nanocrystals and cellulose nanofibrils,
respectively.
CNC can be defined in terms of their source
material and also their lateral dimensions. CNC were
usually extracted from plants, animal and bacteria via
a controlled acid hydrolysis (Kargarzadeh et al. 2018).
CNC extracted from plant celluloses is 100–250 nm in
length, while CNC extracted from celluloses of
tunicates, algae and bacteria were 100 nm to several
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Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
micrometers in length (Klemm et al. 2011). The
obtained CNC are highly crystalline, needle-like
cellulose crystals with 5–70 nm in diameter, * 100%
cellulose and very high crystallinity (54–88%). It is
known that cellulose was made up of amorphous
region and microcrystalline region. The amorphous
region represents a structural defect and can be readily
hydrolyzed by strong acid such as sulphuric acid and
hydrochloric acid (Henrique et al. 2015), leaving high
aspect ratio (length to diameter ratio) crystals of pure
cellulose in the form of an aqueous suspension (Chi
and Catchmark 2017). The amorphous region is more
susceptible to hydrolysis and advance several hundred
to thousand times faster compared to crystalline region
(Jonoobi et al. 2015). The reactivity of cellulose
towards hydrolysis is strongly affected by its physical
and chemical properties. Pretreatments of lingocellu-
losic material such as alkaline treatment, bleaching
and mechanical comminution are commonly applied
to improve the reactivity of cellulose towards hydrol-
ysis process.
Successful CNC extraction methods were governed
by two aspects: (1) cost-effectiveness for industrial
mass production and (2) maximization of CNC yield
(Hamad 2006). Bondeson et al. (2006) attempted to
optimize the CNC extraction process by varying the
sulphuric acid and MCC concentration, hydrolysis
time and temperature as well as duration of sonication.
Using response surface methodology, they found that
sulphuric acid with concentration of 63.5% (w/w) and
hydrolysis time of 2 h are able to produce CNC (yield:
30% of initial weight) with a length between 200 and
400 nm and a width less than 10 nm. Figure 2a, b
shows TEM images of CNC obtained from sugarcane
bagasse fiber and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC).
CNC obtained from both SCBF and MCC exhibited
needle like structure after acid hydrolysis. Sugarcane
bagasse fiber nanocellulose (SBFCNC) were
270–350 nm in length 8–20 nm in width, while CNC
produced from MCC were 250–300 nm in length and
10–20 nm in width. Rod like particles with aspect ratio
of approximately 30 (CNC) and 43 (SBFCNC) were
produced. Nevertheless, some of the CNC and
SBFCNC agglomerates can still be observed. Gener-
ally, agglomeration occurs during drying process,
since strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding and
hydrophilic interaction between cellulosic chains
increases when the water being removed. Figure 2c
shows the typical CNF morphology. The CNF
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
Fig. 2 TEM image of cellulose nanocrystals extracted from
a sugarcane bagasse fiber b microcrystalline cellulose and
c cellulose nanofibrils [Reproduced from Khiari (2017)]
obtained from the agricultural residue of Prunus
amygdalus (almond plant) exhibits a typical aspect
ratio of CNFs regardless of the cellulose source, e.g.,
potato pulp, algae, hemp, rachis date palm and etc.
(Khiari 2017).
Rambabu et al. (2016) sought to optimize the
chemical treatment using sodium hydroxide (NaOH)
and sodium chlorite (NaClO2) for extraction of
nanocellulose from pinecone (Jack pine: Pinus bank-
siana Lamb), and mechanical treatment with an
4307
ultrafine grinding process as a function of mechanical
properties of nanocellulose film. For the chemical
treatment, they found that as concentration of NaOH
and acidified sodium chlorite (ACS) increase from 2 to
6 wt%, the cellulose content increased from 44 to
80 wt%, while hemicellulose and lignin content
reduces significantly (from 27 to 4 wt% for hemicel-
lulose and from 22 to 16 wt% for lignin). As for the
defibrillation process, results indicate that increase
from zero grinding pass to nine grinding passes
improved the tensile strength (from 27 to 273 MPa)
and elastic modulus (2.9 to 17.0 GPa) of nanocellulose
film. Thus, chemical pretreatment followed by super-
masscolloider grinding is an effective and easy
approach to produce nanocellulose from pinecone
biomass with improved mechanical properties.
Extraction of sugarcane bagasse fiber cellulose
nanocrystals (SBFCNC)
The characteristic of CNC is known to depend not only
on their origin but also their extraction method. For
this reason, extraction method has become a subject of
interest for many researchers. SBFCNC were
extracted via a variety of methods such as high
pressure homogenization (Li et al. 2012), acid hydrol-
ysis (Teixeira et al. 2011) and alkaline delignification
followed by controlled acid hydrolysis (Mandal and
Chakrabarty 2011). Table 1 summarizes the extrac-
tion or processing step for various sugarcane bagasse
fiber cellulose nanocrystals and cellulose nanofibrils.
Bhattacharya et al. (2008) extracted CNC from
SCB via three stages, i.e., alkaline pretreatment,
homogenization and followed by acid hydrolysis
process. They concluded that the optimum condition
for hydrolysis process involved sulfuric acid at a
concentration of 60% (w/v) and a duration of 2.5 h at
60 °C. In these conditions, the amorphous regions of
cellulose were mostly removed without significantly
damaging the crystal structure. The dimensions of the
extracted material ranged from a few 100 nm to
microns. Their results also proved that higher con-
centrations of acid and higher temperature will
improve dispersion between individual microfibrils
whereas the crystalline structures of fibers will be
substantially damaged.
In another research by Teixeira et al. (2011), they
successfully isolated CNC from SCB and confirmed
the possibility of using SCB as a source for CNC
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 Table 1 Extraction or processing step for sugarcane bagasse fiber cellulose nanocrystals and cellulose nanofibrils
SCB type (origin)
123
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC)
Bleached SCB kraft pulp
(Egypt)
Unpurified SCB (Brazil)
Raw SCB (India)
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SBFCNC/CNF extraction steps Properties References
Shape Diameter Length (nm) Aspect ratio
(nm)
Acid hydrolyzed (65 wt% H2SO4, 45 °C, 45 min) Needle-like 4–10 8–102 * 13 Bras et al. (2010)
Centrifuged and dialyzed with distilled water whiskers
Sonicated for 2 min
Some drops of chloroform added and SCBFNC were
stored at 4 °C
Sonified (30 min) Needle-like 4±2 255 ± 55 * 64 Teixeira et al. (2011)
Alkaline delignification (5 wt% NaOH, 55 °C, 11% whiskers
v/v H2O2, 90 min stirring)
Washed until neutral pH and dried at 50 °C to
obtained SCBF
Bleached SCBF acid hydrolyzed (6M H2SO4, 45 °C,
30 min)
Cold water added to stop the reaction
Centrifuged and dialyzed to reach neutral pH.
Ultrasonicated for 5 min and stored in refrigerator
after adding chloroform drops H2SO4
Bleaching (Acetic acid 5%, NaClO2 (0.7% w/v), pH Needle-like 35 170 4.86 Mandal and Chakrabarty
4, boiled for 5 h) whiskers (2011)
Washed until neutral
Boiled (5% w/v Na2SO3, 5 h), washing to remove
lignin and hemicellulose
Boiled with 17.5% w/v NaOH, filtered, washed until
neutral and air-dried
Reacted with dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) in 80 °C
for 3 h, filtered, washed and air-dried
Acid hydrolysed (60% w/v H2SO4, 50 °C, 5 h)
fivefold excess water added to stop hydrolysis
Centrifuged for at least five times
Ultrasonicated for 5 min in ice bath
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
 Table 1 continued
SCB type (origin) SBFCNC/CNF extraction steps Properties References
Shape Diameter Length (nm) Aspect ratio
(nm)

Raw SCB (India) Drying, sieved (30 mesh) Rod-like 20–60 250–480 4.17–24 Kumar et al. (2014)
Dried in oven (105 °C, 3 h) nanocrystals
Dewaxed with 2:1 (w/v) benzene/methanol for 6 h
Delignification using acidified sodium chlorite
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330

solution (75 °C, 1 h, repeated 5 times)

Treated with 2 wt% KOH (90 °C, 2 h), 5 wt% KOH
(90 °C, 2 h)
Acid hydrolysis with 64 wt% H2SO4, 45 °C, 60 min
vigorous stirring
Hydrolysis quenched with tenfold excess water,
centrifuged (10,000-12,000 rpm, 15 min)
Dialyzed until neutral pH
Centrifuged and sonicated for 10 min
Stored in refrigerator (4 °C)
Raw SCB (Australia) Cut, ground and screened. Needle-like 20–30 160–400 5.3–20 Sofla et al. (2016)
Dewaxed with toluene- ethanol (2:1, v/v), dried particles
(60 °C, 16 h)
Treated with 300 ml H2O at 55 °C, washed until
neutral pH
Delignification (acidified 1.3% sodium chlorite/
acetic acid mixture, pH4)
Treated with 10% potassium hydroxide and 10%
sodium hydroxide at 20 °C)
Filtered, washed with distilled water and 95%
ethanol, dried for 16 h at 60 °C
Acid hydrolysis (64% w/w H2SO4, 45 °C, 60 min)
Centrifuged (12,000 rpm, 15 min)
Dialyzed until neutral pH and sonicated for 10 min.
4309

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 Table 1 continued
4310

SCB type (origin) SBFCNC/CNF extraction steps Properties References

Shape Diameter Length (nm) Aspect ratio

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(nm)

Unbleached and bleached SCB fiber and pith grounded separately into powder Rod-like 5–8 69–117 8.6–23.4 Oliveira et al. (2016)
SCB (Brazil) (0.5 mesh) particles
Introduced into reactor (1L ethanol/water 1:1 v/v,
190 °C, 2 h)
Washed until neutral and filtered
Alkaline delignification (4% NaOH, 70–80 °C, 24%
H2O2, 1 h stirring)
Acid hydrolysis (65 wt% H2SO4, 50 °C, 40 min
Centrifuged (10,000 rpm, 15 min, 15 °C)
Dialyzed for 3 days
Few drops of chloroform added, stored in
refrigerator (4 °C) and lyophilized
Untreated SCB (Thailand) Washed with water to remove artifacts, drying at Needle-like 9.8 ± 6.3 280.1 ± 73.3 20–25 Lam et al. (2017)
55 °C, 24 h particles
Pretreated with steam explosion machine (at least
1.3 MPa, 190 °C, 15 min)
Digested using xylanase at 20 U/g (solid: liquid,
1:15 w/v, 50 °C, 2 h, agitated)
Bleaching (1.4% w/v acidified sodium chlorite, pH
4, 70 °C, 6 h)
Filtered and washed until neutral
Acid hydrolysis (60% w/v, 45 °C, 75 min, 500 rpm
stirring)
Hydrolysis quenched by adding fivefold water to
mixture
Repeated centrifugation (15,000 rpm, 15 min)
Washed until neutral
Sonicated in ice bath (15 min)
Stored in refrigerator (4 °C)
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
 Table 1 continued
SCB type (origin) SBFCNC/CNF extraction steps Properties References
Shape Diameter Length (nm) Aspect ratio
(nm)

Untreated SCB (Malaysia) Dried under sun to remove moisture (24 h) Needle-like 8–20 275–350 13.75–43.75 Our study
Hot water treatment to remove residual sugar and particles
dirt (70 °C, 2 h)
Alkaline treatment (15% m/v, 90 °C, 4 h)
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330

Bleaching (acidified sodium chlorite, pH 4, 4 h)

Cellulose nanofibrils (CNF)
Bleached kraft bagasse pulp
(Egypt)
Grounded to fine particle
Bleached SCBF acid hydrolyzed (6 M H2SO4,
45 °C, 30 min)
Cold water added to stop the reaction
Centrifuged and dialyzed to reach neutral pH.
Ultrasonicated for 5 min and stored in refrigerator
after adding chloroform drops
Pulp disintegrated using high shear mixer at pulp Needle-like 3.5–60 [ 100 1.67–28.6 Hassan et al. (2012)
suspension 2% fibrils
Refined using high-shear ultrafine friction grinder.
Homogenized using two-chamber high pressure
homogenizer (diluted to 1% consistency and
passed through 10 times
4311

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extraction. The extraction process includes bleaching
process using alkaline peroxide solution followed by
acid hydrolysis (sulfuric acid 6 M) at 45 °C. The
effects of hydrolysis duration (30 and 75 min) against
the properties of CNC obtained were also investigated.
It was found that 30 min of acid hydrolysis is
sufficient for the CNC extraction. The obtained
SBFCNC had an average length (L) of 255 ± 55 nm
and diameter (D) of 4 ± 2 nm, giving an aspect ratio
(L/D) around 64, good thermal stability (255 °C) and
high crystallinity (87.5%).
Mandal and Chakrabarty (2011) extracted CNC
from SCB by means of acid hydrolysis with an
additional treatment before subjecting the material to
hydrolysis process. The extraction process started with
delignification of cellulose from bagasse with 0.7%
(w/v) sodium chlorite solution adjusted by 5% acetic
acid (pH 4). After being washed thoroughly with
distilled water, the fibers were then boiled with sodium
hydroxide solution to remove hemicellulose.
Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) treatment was introduced
to swell the cellulose so that the material becomes
more vulnerable to subsequent acid hydrolysis process
(5 h). DMSO treatment is said to help with the
defibrillation process and it effectively reduces the
diameter of fibrils, as well as removing non-cellulosic
constituents. The exact dimensions of CNC obtained
were measured to be 170 nm length and 35 nm
diameter, giving an aspect ratio around 4.86. From
this result shown, the hydrolysis duration affecting the
size of CNC whereby 5 h of hydrolysis had damaged
the crystal structure of CNC, leading to lower aspect
ratio. This result is in line with the findings by Teixeira
et al. (2011) whereby duration of acid hydrolysis could
affect the size of CNC obtained.
de Campos et al. (2013) obtained CNC from
dewaxed and bleached SCB using enzymatic treat-
ments (a combination of two enzymatic preparations:
hemicell/pectinase and endoglucanase) followed by
sonication. The bagasse fiber (20 g/L) were submitted
to enzymatic hydrolysis at 2% of water insoluble
solids (WIS), in 50 mM sodium-citrate buffer at pH
4.8. The hydrolysis was kept at 50 °C for 72 h and
stirred at 150 rpm in an orbital shaker. Then, samples
were boiled for 10 min to stop the hydrolysis and
sonicated for 20 min before freeze-drying. Finally,
freeze-dried samples were then re-dispersed in deion-
ized water and sonicated again for 20 min. TEM
showed rod like crystals with larger diameters were
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Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
obtained via enzymatic/sonication process. The CNC
obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis had nanosize diam-
eter about 40 nm. This structure was thinner and
shorter than the CNC obtained via acid hydrolysis
process (Teixeira et al. 2011). Nonetheless, the
enzymatic treatment and sonication provide an alter-
native method in producing nanofibers other than
homogenization.
Sofla et al. (2016) studied the chemical, crystalline
structures, thermal stability and morphology of CNC
extracted from SCB. The CNC were extracted using
typical hydrolysis method. Morphological studies
showed that CNC were needle like and have uniform
nanometer sizes (160–400 nm in length and 20–30 nm
in diameter). FTIR analysis of CNC showed that the
characteristic peaks of hemicellulose and lignin were
absent due to complete removal via acid hydrolysis.
The crystallinity of CNC (73%) is relatively high due
to penetration of hydronium ions into the amorphous
region of cellulose, resulting in the hydrolytic cleav-
age of glycosidic linkage and subsequently releases
more independent crystallites.
High pressure homogenization (HPH) can be used
to produce cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) from sugarcane
bagasse fiber. Hassan et al. (2012) used ultrafine
grinding and HPH to isolate CNF from bagasse. The
fibers (at 2% consistency) were passed through
ultrafine grinder from 10 to 30 times. Then, the refined
fibers (at 1% consistency) were homogenized in a two-
chamber high pressure homogenizer up to 10 times.
TEM morphological studies confirmed the presence of
refined bagasse microfibrils and have diameters of
5–15 nm. The fibrils were needle-like in shape. It was
found that HPH can slightly improve the tensile
properties of nanopaper sheets made from the bagasse
nanofiber and this indicates the possibility of produc-
ing high strength nanopaper sheets with fine porous
structure.
According to Li et al. (2012), HPH method is a
simple yet effective biomass refining technology
without the need of any organic solvents. CNF from
ionic liquid pretreated SCB were successfully isolated
by HPH method. The CNF obtained by HPH method
showed certain level of aggregation while individual
particles had a diameter range of 10–20 nm. Crys-
tallinity index of three kinds of cellulose (original
bagasse, ionic liquid treated cellulose and homoge-
nized CNF) were 60, 52 and 36%, respectively. From
thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) and derivative
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
thermogravimetry (DTG) results, the onset decompo-
sition temperature of original bagasse, ionic liquid
treated cellulose and homogenized CNF were 288, 251
and 238 °C, respectively. The reduction of crys-
tallinity and thermal stability of the CNF is due to
the hydrogen bond breakage between celluloses by
ionic liquid pretreatment and high pressure shearing of
HPH.
An improved version of HPH called dynamic high
pressure microfluidization (DHPM) was used to
isolate CNF from SCB (Li et al. 2014). DHPM is an
upgraded method because it can produce finer emul-
sified particles and prevent particle agglomeration.
Crystallinity index of CNF treated by DHPM had
improved (40.93%) compared to CNF treated by HPH
(33.57%) because of shorter processing time and less
amorphous region formation. However, initial decom-
position temperature of CNF treated by DHPM
reduced further compared to CNF treated by HPH,
from 308.8 to 271.8 °C. Nevertheless, more efforts
should be done in order to obtain fibrillated morphol-
ogy of CNF by using HPH and DHPM methods.
SCB based polymer composites
Chemical, physical or combination of both processes
is among the common methods to purify cellulose
from SCB. Several pre-treatment methods of cellulose
were conducted such as dilute acid and alkali hydrol-
ysis, steam explosion, subcritical and supercritical
water. In general, physical pre-treatment involves
reduction of fiber particle size before subjected to
chemical hydrolysis or exposure of fiber to extreme
pressure to decompose the substrate. As for chemical
pre-treatment, lignin that binds both cellulose and
hemicellulose is removed and crystalline structure of
cellulose is destroyed (Dicker et al. 2014). Delignifi-
cation of wood plants is a conventional method used in
paper and pulp industries to produce high strength and
long fiber paper products (Singh et al. 2014). Alkaline
pre-treatment is an easy and effective way to reduce
the chemical incompatibility between hydrophilic
natural fiber and hydrophobic polymer matrix. Table 2
summarized the mechanical properties of various SCB
reinforced polymer composites.
Cao et al. (2006) compared the mechanical prop-
erties between composite reinforced with bagasse fiber
before and after alkali treatment. They altered the
4313
concentration of NaOH solution (1, 3, 5%) and
prepared the composites with five different weight
percentage of fibers (i.e., 20, 35, 50, 65, 75 wt%).
Results showed that composites reinforced with alkali
treated fibers have better mechanical properties than
untreated fibers. The optimum concentration of NaOH
was 1% and the composites had an improvement of
13% tensile strength, 14% flexural strength and 30%
impact strength. Morphological observation indicated
that after alkali treatment, the fiber bundles were
broken down into smaller ones, and thus improving the
aspect ratio of the fibers. This fibrillation process
provides more effective surface area available for
fiber/matrix interfacial adhesion, which in turn
enhanced the mechanical properties of the composites.
Ramaraj (2007) investigated the mechanical and
thermal properties of SCB reinforced polypropylene
(PP) composites. Different loadings of grounded SCB
powder (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt%) were added with PP
using high speed mixer and then extruded. The flexural
strength, impact strength of the composites was
increased by the addition of SCB. On the other hand,
the tensile strength and elongation at break of the
composite was reduced.
Vilay et al. (2008) reported the effects of fiber
surface treatment and different fiber loadings on the
properties of bagasse fiber reinforced unsaturated
polyester (USP) composites. Sodium hydroxide
(NaOH) and acrylic acid (AA) were used to modify
the properties of bagasse fiber. SEM showed that both
treatments reduced the void content of the cellular
structure, which in turn increases the mechanical
properties of the composites. Compared to untreated
fiber, NaOH and AA treated fiber showed improve-
ment in tensile strain at break (? 44.91 and
? 38.71%), tensile strength (? 63 and ? 137.96%)
and tensile modulus (? 11.06 and ? 26.01%), respec-
tively. At fiber loadings of 10 to 20 vol%, AA treated
fiber composites shows better mechanical properties
compared to those of NaOH treated fiber composites.
Rocha et al. (2012) attempted to evaluate the
differences between 20 varieties of SCB samples
based on its chemical composition and yields after
going through steam explosion and alkaline deligni-
fication. Results from their analysis showed that no
significant chemical composition differences of 20
natural SCB, considering planting soils, periods of the
year as well as weather. The sole information of
chemical composition is insufficient to differentiate
123
 Table 2 Mechanical properties of SCB reinforced polymer composites
4314

Polymer/SCB SCB Processing technique Mechanical properties References

loading -2

123
(wt%) TS (MPa) TM (MPa) EB FS (MPa) FM (MPa) IS (J m ) SS
(tensile) (MPa)
(%)

Corn starch/SCB 20 Hot mounting press 16.52 ± 0.78 – – 31.19 ± 2.18 1136.87 ± 115.14 4.12 ± 0.46 – Cao et al.
Corn starch/SCBF 20 Hot mounting press 18.58 ± 0.73 – – 34.71 ± 2.68 1321.72 ± 56.69 6.07 ± 0.79 – (2006)

Corn starch/SCB 35 Hot mounting press 18.60 ± 0.83 – – 38.37 ± 3.04 1451.81 ± 157.64 6.82 ± 0.37 –
Corn starch/SCBF 35 Hot mounting press 21.35 ± 0.69 – – 43.96 ± 3.04 1622.36 ± 185.78 8.29 ± 0.98 –
Corn starch/SCB 50 Hot mounting press 21.09 ± 0.89 – – 40.16 ± 2.36 1841.34 ± 74.60 8.17 ± 0.17 –
Corn starch/SCBF 50 Hot mounting press 23.07 ± 0.53 – – 46.05 ± 2.57 2031.37 ± 155.15 9.52 ± 0.31 –
Corn starch/SCB 65 Hot mounting press 23.47 ± 0.74 – – 43.87 ± 3.78 2292.02 ± 174.52 8.82 ± 0.57 –
Corn starch/SCBF 65 Hot mounting press 26.77 ± 0.75 – – 50.86 ± 3.79 2673.71 ± 165.17 11.27 ± 0.85 –
PP 0 Thermokinetic 27 ± 1 1139 ± 1 11.0 ± 0.2 25.4 ± 0.1 1168 ± 1 – 7.3 ± 0.3 Luz et al.
mixer ? injection molding (2008a, b)
PP/SCBF 10 Thermokinetic 26.2 ± 0.7 1182 ± 86 8.9 ± 0.4 34.9 ± 0.2 2010 ± 100 – 9.8 ± 0.1
mixer ? injection molding
PP/SCBF 20 Thermokinetic 25.8 ± 0.3 1484 ± 168 6.0 ± 0.3 35.5 ± 0.4 2220 ± 100 – 10.5 ± 0.2
mixer ? injection molding
PP/Acetylated SCBF 10 Thermokinetic 24.5 ± 0.8 1011 ± 148 8.9 ± 0.7 28.0 ± 0.2 1500 ± 100 – 8.1 ± 0.2
mixer ? injection molding
PP/Acetylated SCBF 20 Thermokinetic 20.1 ± 0.4 1080 ± 139 7.3 ± 0.4 27.7 ± 0.2 1598 ± 25 – 8.3 ± 0.1
mixer ? injection molding
PP/SCBF cellulignin 10 Thermokinetic 24.2 ± 0.5 1012 ± 96 9.4 ± 0.4 31.7 ± 0.2 1800 ± 20 – 9.7 ± 0.3
mixer ? injection molding
PP/SCBF cellulignin 20 Thermokinetic 23.7 ± 0.3 1250 ± 100 7.3 ± 0.4 34.0 ± 0.4 2105 ± 15 – 9.2 ± 0.2
mixer ? injection molding
PP/Acetylated SCBF 10 Thermokinetic 23.2 ± 0.2 937 ± 20 10.0 ± 0.2 27.9 ± 0.1 1550 ± 100 – 9.2 ± 0.2
cellulignin mixer ? injection molding
PP/Acetylated SCBF 20 Thermokinetic 20.3 ± 0.4 964 ± 54 8.4 ± 0.3 29.0 ± 0.7 1700 ± 155 – 11.9 ± 0.1
cellulignin mixer ? injection molding
HDPE/SCBF 10 Extrusion ? compression 14.4 ± 0.58 880.1 ± 63.5 1.62 ± 0.097 – – – – Mulinari et al.
molding (2009a, b)
HDPE/ 10 Extrusion ? compression 15.6 ± 1.11 1324.2 ± 211.0 1.2 ± 0.185 – – – –
zirconium oxychloride molding
modified SCBF
HDPE/ 10 Thermokinetic 1.54 ± 0.13 897 ± 27.5 1.74 ± 0.04 – – – – Mulinari et al.
SCBF mixer ? injection molding (2009a, b)

HDPE/ 10 Thermokinetic 18.2 ± 1.06 1233.1 ± 118.4 1.54 ± 0.13 – – – –

zirconium oxychloride mixer ? injection molding
modified SCBF
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330 4315

the dissimilarity of SCB. However, the steam explo-

Guimarães et al.
Cerqueira et al.
References
sion pre-treatment pilot process and alkaline treatment

(2011)

(2010)
facilitate a good capacity of reproduction and the
average mass yield was 66.1% (steam explosion) and
51.5% (alkaline treatment).
(MPa)

Moubarik et al. (2013a, b) isolated cellulose fiber

SS

from Moroccan sugarcane bagasse using hot water

–
–
–
–

–
treatment followed by alkaline aqueous solution
32.7 ± 6.0
45.0 ± 0.1
52.5 ± 0.6
(J m-2)

TS tensile strength, TM tensile modulus, EB elongation at break, FS flexural strength, FM flexural modulus, IS impact strength, SS shear strength
treatment. In their study, at 25 wt % bagasse fiber
loading, Young’s modulus and flexural modulus of
IS

–
low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased 72 and
(MPa)

85% respectively. The increment is because of

FM

improved fiber/matrix adhesion and rougher topogra-

–
–
–
–

phy which provide better mechanical interlocking of

1047.3 ± 234.5

1200.8 ± 112.9
960.7 ± 139.2
FS (MPa)

individual fibrils and matrix. The pre-treatment pro-

cess also yielded 42% cellulose, which is comparable
with the expected cellulose content in SCB.
–

Wang et al. (2013) prepared green composites of

10.30 ± 1.31

5.09 ± 0.15

PLA and SCB residues (derived from different steps of

(tensile)

biorefinery process) with a small amount of coupling

(%)
EB

agent (DesmodurÒ VKS 20) (DVKS) for better

–
–
–

interfacial bonding of fiber and PLA matrix. DVKS

162.50 ± 19.12

199.48 ± 18.68
1027.1. ± 82.9
1105.5 ± 22.6

1442.5 ± 68.7

is a mixture of diphenylmethane-4,40 -diisocyanate

TM (MPa)
Mechanical properties

(MDI) with isomers and higher functional homo-

logues, which has a –NCO (isocyanate group) content
of about 31.5%. The improvement of tensile strength
4.15 ± 0.20

2.92 ± 0.21
TS (MPa)

22.9 ± 1.4
23.0 ± 0.6
22.3 ± 0.8

(? 98.94%) and flexural strength (? 93.91%) of PLA/

pretreated SCB were achieved by the incorporation of
2% DVKS.
Moretti et al. (2014) proposed an innovative pre-
treatment method using microwave irradiation on
mixer ? temperature and pressure

mixer ? temperature and pressure

glycerol impregnated SCB. After microwave pre-

treatment with glycerol, the cellulose fraction of pre-
Processing technique

treated cellulose increased from 46.9 to 59.5% com-

Ball mill ? mechanical

Ball mill ? mechanical

Thermokinetic mixer
Thermokinetic mixer
Thermokinetic mixer

pared to untreated cellulose. From thermal analysis,

differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis
indicated that the energy absorbed during thermal
degradation process reduced 26.5% from 103.7 J/g
(untreated bagasse) to 76.2 J/g (treated bagasse). It
was found that treated bagasse will have higher
SCB loading

thermal stability because of higher yield of crystalline

cellulose. This method can possibly provide an
(wt%)

alternative to conventional delignification process

10
20
25

25
5

which involve acids or alkalis and at the same time

Table 2 continued

increases the yield of cellulose fraction.

glycerin/SCBF
Polymer/SCB

Starch/Glycerol/

Khoo and Chow (2015) investigated the effects of

Starch/Crude

SCB fiber size on the storage modulus (E0 ) of PLA

PP/SCBF
PP/SCBF
PP/SCBF

SCBF

composites. It was found that the addition of alkali

treated SCB and SCBF powder (SCBFP, size 100 lm)

123
4316
enhanced storage modulus of the PLA. Most of the
studies showed that SCB is a potential candidate for
polymer reinforcement. The bagasse was used in
either their natural form or modified form. The use of
SCB is highly recommended since they are renewable
and biodegradable.
SCB based nanocomposites
Common applications of nanocellulose include paper-
making, coating additives, security papers and food
packaging. The potential applications of CNC as
nanofillers in both synthetic and bio-based polymeric
matrices are documented (Azeredo et al. 2010; Abdul
Khalil et al. 2012; Aitomäki and Oksman 2014; Ansari
et al. 2014). Results from these studies were convinc-
ing and showed great potential in producing contem-
porary polymer materials.
Usage of CNC as filler in nanocomposites had been
studied actively due to their good mechanical proper-
ties with high flexural strength and stiffness (e.g.
Young’s modulus * 150 GPa) (Cao et al. 2007). The
advantages of nanocomposites over conventional
composites are their superior thermal, mechanical,
barrier and optical properties (Oksman et al. 2006;
Kargarzadeh et al. 2017). Table 3 summarized the
mechanical properties of various SCB based polymer
nanocomposites. Note that most of the polymer/SCB
based nanocomposites are prepared using solution
casting method in order to achieve good dispersion of
CNC in the matrix.
Mandal and Chakrabarty (2014) investigated the
effects of SBFCNC on the properties of both linear and
crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Tensile
strength, elongation at break, yield force and tough-
ness of both films showed exceptional improvements
along with an increase in thermal stability. It is worthy
to note that TEM images showed CNC in crosslinked
PVA composites appeared to be in rod shape, which
indicates the influence of aspect ratio on the reinforc-
ing-ability of the CNC.
Slavutsky and Bertuzzi (2014) used the same
method as described by Bondeson et al. (2006) to
produce CNC from SCB and prepared SBFCNC
reinforced starch films. From SEM morphological
studies, the obtained CNC have average length (L) of
247.51 nm (± 32.34) and average diameter (D) of
10.11 nm (± 3.36), giving the L/D ratio of 24.48.
123
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
SEM images also showed that CNC were properly
dispersed in the matrix structure, leading towards an
improvement in mechanical properties. Starch/CNC
films showed an increase of tensile strength (2.8 ± 1.0
to 17.4 ± 1.4 MPa) and Young’s modulus (112 ± 9
to 520 ± 12 MPa) and a decrease of elongation at
break (44.9 ± 1.6 to 9.1 ± 1.3%) compared to starch
films. The reduction of elongation at break is mainly
due to the rigid nature of the CNC.
Mandal and Chakrabarty (2015a) carried out stud-
ies on the SBFCNC reinforced semi-interpenetrating
(IPN) polymer of polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylamide
(PVA/PAAm) composites films. Tensile strength of
the neat PVA films showed continuous increment as
the loading of SBFCNC increases from 0 to 10 wt%.
As for crosslinked PVA, a loading of 5 wt% of
nanocellulose in the composite film showed the
highest tensile strength. The semi-IPN film exhibited
the much higher tensile strength compared to neat and
crosslinked PVA films. The extensive hydrogen
bonding between PVA, PAAm and CNC is one of
the contributing factors for the enhancement in tensile
strength of the films. Besides, the elastic modulus of
the films increases as the increasing loading of CNC.
In another research by Mandal and Chakrabarty
(2015b), SBFCNC were integrated into PVA/PAAm
(polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylamide) full-interpenetrat-
ing polymer (IPN). A loading of 5 wt% nanocellulose
resulted in the highest tensile strength amongst other
IPN composite films. The improvement of modulus
and toughness of composite films can also be observed
with the use of CNC as filler material. This is due to
fact that CNC acts as a multifunctional crosslinker
(due to large number of –OH groups on surface) and
reinforcing agent, hence improving the mechanical
properties of the composites.
SCB and its nanocellulose as heavy metal adsorbent
Heavy metal pollution is one of the major environ-
mental problems that will lead to ecological imbalance
and indirectly a threat to human health. Several legal
bodies, for example, World Health Organization
(WHO), United States Environmental Protection
Agency (USEPA), and Malaysian Department of
Environment (DOE) have set maximum prescribed
permissible limits for discharge of toxic metal into
aquatic systems. Yet, higher concentration of heavy
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330 4317

Table 3 Mechanical properties of SBFCNC reinforced polymer nanocomposites

Polymer/SBFCNC SBFCNC Mechanical properties References
loading
(wt%) TS (MPa) TM EB SY SB YF Tough-
(MPa) (tensile) (%) (%) (N) ness
(%) (MPa)

Linear starch 0 3.1 66.3 – 42.5 49.4 – – Gilfillan et al.

Starch/SBFCNC 2.5 4.8 152.8 – 32.4 39.0 – – (2014)
Starch/SBFCNC 5.0 5.3 172.6 – 27.7 31.0 – –
Starch/SBFCNC 10.0 6.2 181.1 – 19.0 20.5 – –
Starch/SBFCNC 20.0 5.8 198.3 – 13.4 14.5 – –
Linear PVA 0 42 – 135 – – 52 – Mandal and
PVA/SBFCNC 2.5 50 – 160 – – 49 – Chakrabarty
(2014)
PVA/SBFCNC 5 57 – 190 – – 60 –
PVA/SBFCNC 7.5 60 – 180 – – 68 –
PVA/SBFCNC 10 59 – 100 – – 72 –
Glyoxal crosslinked 0 58 – 5 – – 73 –
PVA
Glyoxal crosslinked 2.5 72 – 7 – – 91 –
PVA/SBFCNC
Glyoxal crosslinked 5 84 – 7 – – 105 –
PVA/SBFCNC
Glyoxal crosslinked 7.5 55 – 35 – – 69 –
PVA/SBFCNC
Glyoxal crosslinked 10 52 – 50 – – 65 –
PVA/SBFCNC
Linear PVA 0 42 750 135 – – – 53 Mandal and
PVA/SBFCNC 2.5 50 900 160 – – – 75 Chakrabarty
(2015a, b)
PVA/SBFCNC 5 57 1650 190 – – – 107
PVA/SBFCNC 7.5 60 2100 180 – – – 115
PVA/SBFCNC 10 59 1750 100 – – – 70
Glyoxal crosslinked 0 58 2250 5 – – – 3
PVA
Glyoxal crosslinked 2.5 72 2600 7 – – – 10
PVA/SBFCNC
Glyoxal crosslinked 5 84 3200 7 – – – 20
PVA/SBFCNC
Glyoxal crosslinked 7.5 55 1950 35 – – – 25
PVA/SBFCNC
Glyoxal crosslinked 10 52 1500 50 – – – 35
PVA/SBFCNC
Semi-IPN PVA 0 65 2600 55 – – – 28
Semi-IPN PVA/ 2.5 70 2800 50 – – – 25
SBFCNC
Semi-IPN PVA/ 5 90 3700 35 – – – 19
SBFCNC
Semi-IPN PVA/ 7.5 78 3450 40 – – – 22
SBFCNC
Semi-IPN PVA/ 10 76 3400 30 – – – 19
SBFCNC

123
4318 Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330

Table 3 continued
Polymer/SBFCNC SBFCNC Mechanical properties References
loading
(wt%) TS (MPa) TM EB SY SB YF Tough-
(MPa) (tensile) (%) (%) (N) ness
(%) (MPa)

Linear Starch 0 2.8 ± 1.0 112 ± 9 44.9 ± 1.6 – – – – Slavutsky and

Starch/Glycerol/ 3 17.4 ± 1.4 520 ± 12 9.1 ± 1.3 – – – – Bertuzzi (2014)
SBFCNC
TS tensile strength, TM tensile modulus, EB elongation at break, SY strain at yield, SB strain at break, YF yield force

Table 4 Permissible limits and health hazards of various toxic heavy metals (Malaysian DOE 2017; Sud et al. 2008)
Metal Malaysian marine water quality criteria and standards Permissible Health hazard
contaminant limits of
Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class E drinking water
quality (lg/L)
Preservation, Marine life, Ports, oil Mangroves WHO USEPA
marine, fisheries, coral and gas estuarine and
protected areas, reefs, recreational fields river-mouth
marine parks and mariculture (lg/L) water (lg/L)
(lg/L) (lg/L)

Arsenic 3 20 50 20 10 50 Carcinogenic (skin, lung,

bladder, kidney and liver
cancer), neurological,
respiratory effects
Cadmium 0.5 2 10 2 3 5 Lung damage,
carcinogenic, kidney, lung
and bone disease
Chromium 5 10 48 10 50 100 Carcinogenic, severe
cardiovascular,
respiratory, hematological
and neurological effects
Copper 1.3 2.9 10 2.9 – 1300 Cellular damage leading to
Wilson disease, nose,
mouth and eyes irritation,
headache, dizziness
Lead 4.4 8.5 50 8.5 10 5 Damage to central nervous
system, kidneys, liver,
endocrine and
reproductive system
Mercury 0.04 0.16 50 0.5 1 2 Carcinogenic, corrosive to
skin, eyes and muscle,
neurological damage
Zinc 15 50 100 50 – – Acute intoxication,
lethargy, anemia and
dizziness

123
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
metal was released into river streams and marine
waters, leading to health hazards and water pollution
(see Table 4). Heavy metal can be defined as metallic
chemical elements that have relatively high density
and is poisonous at lower concentration (Bediako et al.
2015). The common discharged industrial effluents
into the environment includes, copper, cadmium,
nickel, lead, and chromium. Several heavy metal
removal methods are chemical precipitation, floccu-
lation, membrane separation, ion exchange, evapora-
tion and electrolysis. The aforementioned treatments
are usually expensive and inefficient (Hokkanen et al.
2013). Recently, the function of SCB as heavy metal
adsorbent had been investigated due to the increase
attention of using agricultural waste material as
adsorption materials. Inexpensive, large supply quan-
tities and high regeneration are among some major
advantages of using SCB as a biosorbent material.
Therefore, adsorption using agricultural wastes
known as biosorption, is considered as a more
effective and economic method in treating heavy
metals. Biosorption of heavy metal is a treatment of
heavy metal contaminants from aqueous streams using
biosorbent. Typical adsorption process requires an
adsorbent solid that binds molecules by physical
attractive forces, ion exchange, and chemical binding
(Demirbas 2008). It is well known that agricultural
wastes can be obtained easily and this material can
serve as cheap adsorbent material.
Generally, the phenomenon of adsorption occurs
when there is a concentration gradient present at the
surface of sorbent. A complete functional adsorption
process requires a solid phase (sorbent) and a liquid
phase (solvent) which contain dissolved material to be
adsorbed. The interaction between these two phases
involves several rather complex mechanisms includ-
ing physisorption, complexation and chelation, ion
exchange, precipitation, electrostatic interactions and
adsorption on surface and pores (O’Connell et al.
2008).
The two main mechanisms in heavy metal adsorp-
tion using cellulosic biosorbents are ion exchange and
chemical complexation. Ion exchange occurs when the
metal ions attached to the opposite charge at the
surface of adsorbent due to electrostatic interactions of
positive cations and negatively groups in the biosor-
bents (Sarker et al. 2017). In chemical complexation,
the functional groups on the adsorbent surface have
specific interaction sites with a particular kind of metal
4319
ions. However, the maximum adsorption capacities in
both mechanisms are limited by stoichiometry rules
and cannot exceed half content of surface ionic sites
(Putro et al. 2017). Modification of both cellulose and
nanocellulose provide remarkable effects on the
adsorption performance of the materials. Surface
modifications were conducted to increase or instigate
ionic, ionizable or complexing site on the surface of
adsorbent. Functional groups like carboxylic sulfate
and amine are often introduced either during prepa-
ration of nanocellulose as well as nanofibrils (Mah-
foudhi and Boufi 2017). In order to determine the
effectiveness of biosorption, both Langmuir model
and Freundlich adsorption isotherm are two most
commonly used equations to represent the adsorption
experimental data of organic and inorganic com-
pounds on cellulose and nanocellulose adsorbents
(Putro et al. 2017). Langmuir model is able to predict
the equivalence of adsorption sites and monolayer of
adsorbate coverage; Freundlich equation is an empir-
ical relation between the adsorption level and equi-
librium concentration of solute in the liquid (Sud et al.
2008).
SCB as heavy metal adsorbent
High capacity, process simplicity, high regeneration
and possible recovery of metals are among the
prominent advantages of using agricultural wastes as
adsorbents. Agricultural wastes such as sugarcane
bagasse that has a high amount of cellulose shows
great potential in metal biosorption capacity. Accord-
ing to Sud et al. (2008), various functional groups
present in biomass molecules like acetamido groups,
carbonyl, phenolic, polysaccharides, amino, carboxyl
group alcohols and esters can promote metal chelation
and simplify the metal isolation process. Removal of
metal ions were tested using various biosorbents such
as oak sawdust (Argun et al. 2007), peanut hull (Ali
et al. 2016), sawdust and peanut husk (Li et al. 2007),
and creeping wild Ryegrass (Zheng et al. 2016). The
waste materials were used either in their natural form,
chemically modified or thermal treated in order to
enhance their adsorption performance.
SCB is a typical example of these biosorbent owing
to its enormous production, i.e., 54 million dry tonnes
per annum (Soliman et al. 2011). This huge quantity of
wastes was now being studied and converted into a
value-added material, for instance, metal ion sorbent.
123
4320
Both natural and modified SCB were tested for heavy
metal chelation like Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Cd, As, and Hg
were reported and the results is quite convincing (Rao
et al. 2002; Garg et al. 2007, 2008a, b). Table 5 shows
the summary of work by various researchers regarding
the adsorption capacity of SCB on different metal
ions.
Adsorption of nickel(II) ions
Nickel(II) ions were discharged from nickel mining,
forging and electroplating industries. Long exposure
to this heavy metal will cause chronic bronchitis,
reduced liver function and lung cancer (Tchounwou
et al. 2012). Experiments on removal of nickel were
conducted on raw SCB and results showed 79%
removal efficiency (Garg et al. 2007). They proposed
an optimum condition to achieve maximum removal
of nickel from 50 mg/L nickel aqueous solution:
adsorbent (SCB) dose (1500 mg/L), pH (7.52) and
stirring speed (150 rpm), by using Response Surface
Methodology (RSM). Various treatments on SCB
have been conducted to further enhance the adsorption
capacity of SCB. For instance, Lal Homagai et al.
(2010) modified the functional group of SCB by
introducing xanthate group and the presence of sulfur
atom is said to have strong affinity for many heavy
metals. Results showed that xanthated SCB have a
maximum adsorption capacity of nickel(II) ions at
147.91 mg/g, which is much better than other biosor-
bents. Ramos et al. (2015) also investigated the
adsorption capacity of carboxylate functionalized
SCB on nickel metal ions. It was concluded that the
modified SCB adsorbent was efficient in removing
nickel ions from single and binary component aqueous
solutions.
Adsorption of copper(II) ions
Copper(II) ions are odorless, colorless and soluble in
water. According to WHO (2004), approximately 4
mg/L of copper ions can cause headache, nausea,
vomiting and diarrhea. Large doses of copper inges-
tion or exposure will cause cellular damage and liver
failure. The potential use of SCB as adsorbent had
been explored, and its significant removal efficiency
were reported (Karnitz et al. 2007; Gurgel and Gil
2009; Jiang et al. 2009). Generally, modified SCB
showed better adsorption efficiency than untreated
123
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
SCB. Xanthated SCB prepared by Lal Homagai et al.
(2010) present strong affinity for copper(II) ions up to
184.92 mg/g. Zhu et al. (2015) synthesized a novel
modified bagasse pulp through a series of microwave
pretreatment, epoxidation, amination and ultrasonic
enhancement sulfonation reaction. The uptake capac-
ity of the adsorbent was found to be 35.2 mg copper
ions/1 g adsorbent. On top of that, regeneration studies
showed that the adsorbent can be easily isolated and
regenerated from adsorption medium.
Adsorption of cadmium(II) ions
Cadmium is regarded as one of the most toxic metal
that can harm both human and environment. It is
usually used in alloy, batteries and electroplating
industries. Continuous exposure to cadmium com-
pounds is carcinogenic to organs, especially human
lungs and pulmonary system. Júnior et al. (2009)
treated SCB with NaOH to perform mercerization and
incorporated ethylenediaminetetraacetic dianhydride
(EDTAD) onto SCB to produce chelating material.
EDTAD is incorporated due to its efficiency in heavy
metal complexation. Result showed that the adsorp-
tion capacity of twice-mercerized EDTAD treated
SCB (149 mg/g) is highest among other non- and
mercerized SCB. In addition, charred xanthated SCB
also showed a promising cadmium ion adsorption
capacity at 219.26 mg/g (Lal Homagai et al. 2010).
Adsorption of lead(II) ions
Lead occurs naturally as a bluish-gray metal in earth’s
crust. Mining, industrial and urban development near
rivers and marine coastal environment contribute to
the release of high lead concentration. Large amount
of lead absorption into human body will cause nervous
system failure, kidneys and liver cancer. Yu et al.
(2013a, b) introduced a convenient way to recover and
reuse of the modified biosorbents from aqueous
medium. Using magnetic modified adsorbents, it is
easier to separate magnetic sorbent from aqueous
solution using external magnetic field. They prepared
magnetic modified SCB by chemical grafting of
pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) onto SCB followed
by a situ co-precipitation to load magnetic particles on
surface of SCB. The adsorption capacities of the SCB
were recorded at 248.64 mg/g, which is significantly
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330 4321

Table 5 Adsorption capacity of metal ions on native SCB and modified SCB
Metal Adsorbent (sugarcane bagasse SCB) Adsorption capacity (mg/ References
ion g)

Ni (II) Natural SCB 7.8 (79%)* Garg et al. (2007)

Untreated SCB 0.063 Sousa et al. (2009)
HCl treated bagasse 0.135
HNO3 treated bagasse 0.228
Charred xanthated SCB 147.91 (2.52 mol/kg)* Lal Homagai et al.
(2010)
Bagasse powder (\ 1 mm) 2.0 Alomá et al. (2012)
Carboxylated functionalized SCB 91.74 (1.563 mmol/g)* Ramos et al. (2015)
Phthalate-functionalized SCB 54.70 (0.932 mmol/g)* Ramos et al. (2016)
Cu (II) Natural SCB 3.65 Pranata Putra et al.
(2014)
Modified SCB 133 Karnitz et al. (2007)
Untreated SCB 0.050 Sousa et al. (2009)
HCl treated bagasse 0.217
HNO3 treated bagasse 0.211
Succinylated twice mercerized SCB 69.4 Gurgel and Gil (2009)
Succinylated and sodium bicarbonate treated SCB 185.2 Gurgel et al. (2008)
Succinylated twice mercerized and sodium bicarbonate treated 185.2
SCB
Acrylonitrile and hydroxylamine modified SCB 101.01 Jiang et al. (2009)
EDTAD mercerized SCB 92.6 Júnior et al. (2009)
Charred xanthated SCB 184.92 (2.91 mol/kg)* Lal Homagai et al.
(2010)
Natural SCB 6.355 (0.10 mmol/g)* Yu et al. (2013a, b)
Pyromellitic dianhydride SCB 76.90 (1.21 mmol/g)*
Carboxylated functionalized SCB 76.06 (1.197 mmol/g)* Ramos et al. (2015)
Phthalate-functionalized SCB 59.42 (0.935 mmol/g)* Ramos et al. (2016)
Cd (II) Natural SCB 69.06 Garg et al. (2008a, b)
Natural SCB 3.53 Niu et al. (2014)
Succinylated twice mercerized SCB 106.4 Gurgel and Gil (2009)
Natural SCB 14.61 (0.13 mmol/g)* Yu et al. (2013a, b)
Pyromellitic dianhydride SCB 104.57 (0.93 mmol/g)*
Carboxymethylated lignin of SCB 38 (0.338 mmol/g)* Peternele et al. (1999)
Charred xanthated SCB 219.26 (1.95 mol/kg)* Lal Homagai et al.
(2010)
Magnetic modified SCB 123.69 (1.1 mmol/g)* Yu et al. (2013a, b)
Succinylated twice mercerized and sodium bicarbonate treated 43.6 Gurgel et al. (2008)
SCB
EDTAD mercerized SCB 149.0 Júnior et al. (2009)
Graft copolymerized SCB 14.28 Niu et al. (2014)
Modified SCB 313 Karnitz et al. (2007)

123
4322 Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330

Table 5 continued
Metal Adsorbent (sugarcane bagasse SCB) Adsorption capacity (mg/ References
ion g)

Pb(II) Natural SCB 21.28 Pranata Putra et al.

(2014)
Natural SCB 6.366 Martı́n-Lara et al. (2010)
Acid treated SCB 7.297 Martı́n-Lara et al. (2010)
Succinylated twice mercerized SCB 222.2 Gurgel and Gil (2009)
Charred xanthated SCB 327.38 (1.58 mol/kg)* Lal Homagai et al.
(2010)
Carboxymethylated lignin of SCB 78.736 (0.388 mmol/g)* Peternele et al. (1999)
Natural SCB 8.288 (0.04 mmol/g)* Yu et al. (2013a, b)
Pyromellitic dianhydride SCB 219.632 (1.06 mmol/g)* Yu et al. (2013a, b)
Magnetic modified SCB 248.64 (1.2 mmol/g)* Yu et al. (2013a, b)
Succinylated twice mercerized and sodium bicarbonate treated 83.3 Gurgel et al. (2008)
SCB
EDTAD mercerized SCB 333.0 Júnior et al. (2009)
Modified SCB 313 Karnitz et al. (2007)
Citric acid treated SCB 52.63 Dos Santos et al. (2010)
Cr(VI) Natural SCB 18.4 (92%)* Garg et al. (2007)
SCB rind 384 Ullah et al. (2013)
SCB rind beads 393
SCB pith 404
SCB pith beads 411
Zn (II) Natural SCB 4.577 (0.07 mmol/g)* Yu et al. (2013a, b)
Pyromellitic dianhydride SCB 65.38 (1.0 mmol/g)* Yu et al. (2013a, b)
Natural SCB 40.0 Pranata Putra et al.
(2014)
Untreated SCB 0.0137 Sousa et al. (2009)
HCl treated bagasse 0.176
HNO3 treated bagasse 0.120
EDTAD modified SCB 105 Pereira et al. (2010)
As (V) Hydrated ferric oxide treated SCB 22.1 Pehlivan et al. (2013)
Co (II) Carboxylated functionalized SCB 67.18 (1.140 mmol/g)* Ramos et al. (2015)
Phthalate-functionalized SCB 33.06 (0.561 mmol/g)* Ramos et al. (2016)
Hg(II) Natural and chemically modified SCB 35.71 Khoramzadeh et al.
(2013)
Microwave radiated SCB 280.829 (1.4 mmol/g)* Orlando et al. (2002)
Values in parenthesis (*) indicates the original value and units stated in respective references

higher than other similar studies (Gurgel et al. 2008;
Dos Santos et al. 2010).
Adsorption of chromium(VI) ions
Chromium exists in two usual forms, trivalent and
hexavalent oxidation state. The hexavalent form,
Cr(VI) ions have greater toxicity to organism due to
its powerful oxidation properties. Ullah et al. (2013)
conducted adsorption test on Cr(VI) ions using native
SCB, immobilized SCB pith and rind as adsorbent.
The authors found that the adsorption efficiency of
SCB pith (404 mg/g) is remarkable. The result is
higher than several other agricultural waste biomasses
such as sawdust (39.7 mg/g), maize cob (13.8 mg/g)

123
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
and sugar beet pulp (17.2 mg/g) (Sen and Dastidar
2010).
Adsorption of other metal ions
Other toxic metal ions like zinc, arsenic, cobalt and
mercury ions released alongside industrial effluents
are harmful to environment even at low concentration
(Orlando et al. 2002; Yu et al. 2013a, b; Ramos et al.
2015). Native SCB and EDTAD modified SCB
showed promising adsorption capacity (40 mg/g and
105 mg/g) in removing zinc(II) ions (Pranata Putra
et al. 2014; Pereira et al. 2010). On the other hand,
hydrated ferric oxide treated SCB was utilized to
remove arsenic(V) but the results were less convincing
compared to other adsorbed metal ions on SCB, which
is 22.1 mg/g (Pehlivan et al. 2013). As for mercury
ions, microwave radiated SCB was used for removal
of or mercury ions and results were plausible
(280.829 mg/g). These results proved SCB to be a
potential candidate in producing low cost and effective
bioadsorbent.
Sugarcane bagasse fiber cellulose nanocrystals
(SBFCNC) as heavy metal adsorbent
Besides polymer reinforcement, adsorbents based on
raw or modified CNC is the current trend in develop-
ing new water treatment methods. High specific
surface area, chemical accessibility, hydrophilic prop-
erties and functionalization flexibility were among the
benefits of using CNC over synthetic water treatment
chemicals in water purification (Carpenter et al. 2015).
The combination of biotechnology and nanotechnol-
ogy enable various surface modification of CNC with
functional groups that could develop specific interac-
tions with different metal ions. Adsorption perfor-
mance of CNC is expected to be on par with
conventional lignocellulosic adsorbents since its high
specific surface area could provide more active sites of
immobilizing a larger quantity of metal ions (Liu et al.
2015). This contemporary application of CNC in
heavy metal removal had been the subject of interest
recently. Table 6 summarizes the recent developments
in the field of using CNC in water treatment as
sustainable heavy metal adsorbent.
Generally, chemical modification of cellulose is
able to improve the adsorption capacity of cellulose-
based adsorbents due to formation of new functional
4323
groups and also increased active binding sites that
support higher uptake of pollutants. Cellulose chem-
ical modification is made possible because of the
abundance of hydroxyl groups on cellulose surface,
enabling adsorption of different types of pollutants.
Nevertheless, there are two main categories of cellu-
lose modification: monomer-grafting and direct chem-
ical modification (Hokkanen et al. 2016). Figure 3
shows the various methods in cellulose modification.
Monomer grafting facilitates the attachments of a
variety of functional groups to the cellulose backbone,
providing cellulose with new properties depending on
the monomer grafted (Desmet et al. 2011). Carboxyl,
amine, nitrile, amidoxime and glycidyl methacrylate
(GMA)-imidazole are a few common functional
groups used in cellulose grafting. Monomer grafting
can be further divided into 3 subcategories: pho-
tografting, high energy radiation grafting and chem-
ical initiation grafting (Hokkanen et al. 2016). Direct
chemical modification method plays an important part
in improving adsorption capacity and physical stabil-
ity of cellulose (Gurgel et al. 2008). In general, direct
cellulose modification can be divided into six principal
routes: esterification, etherification, halogenation, oxi-
dation, silynation and alkali treatment (Eyley and
Thielemans 2014; Fox et al. 2011; Hokkanen et al.
2016). Table 6 shows the adsorption capacity of
various metal ions on different CNC.
In our study, sugarcane bagasse fiber cellulose
nanocrystals (SBFCNC) was used to adsorb Pb(II)
metal ions. A standardized optimum conditions for the
removal of different divalent cations at metal concen-
tration of 25 mg/L, 200 mL volume and contact time
of 40 min in the pH range of 6.0 developed by Kardam
et al. (2013) were followed. As a result, 0.5 g of
SBFCNC showed removal efficiency of 9.51 mg/g
Pb(II) metal ions from 25 mg/L of metal solution. Our
result is comparable to Kardam et al. (2013) in their
sorption studies using rice straw nanocellulose at 0.5 g
exhibited removal efficiency of Pb(II) was 9.42 mg/g.
Based on Table 6, it is important to note that SBFCNC
were used for adsorption after acid hydrolysis without
further chemical modifications as compared to other
studies such as succinic anhydride modified mercer-
ized NC (Hokkanen et al. 2013), phosphorylated CNC
(Liu et al. 2015) and sulfonated wheat pulp NC
(Suopajärvi et al. 2015). Thus, it is expected that
appropriate chemical treatment of the SBFCNC could
enhance its heavy metal absorption ability.
123
4324 Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330

Table 6 Adsorption capacity of various metal ions on different nanocellulose

Metal Source of nanocellulose Nanocellulose Adsorption References
ion capacity (mg/g)

Ni (II) Microfribillated Succinic anhydride modified mercerized 42.26 (0.72 mmol/ Hokkanen et al.
cellulose (MFC) nanocellulose g)* (2013)
Bleach birch chemical Amino modified nanostructured MFC 160.23 Hokkanen et al.
wood pulp (2.73 mmol/g)* (2014)
Rice straw Rice straw CNC 8.55 Kardam et al.
(2013)
Cotton fiber Reactive Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes 8.18 Xie et al. (2011)
modified nanocellulose
Bleach birch chemical Carbonated hydroxyapatite (CHA) modified MFC 118.56 Hokkanen et al.
wood pulp (2.02 mmol/g)* (2014)
Cu (II) Microfribillated Succinic anhydride modified mercerized 119.47 Hokkanen et al.
cellulose (MFC) nanocellulose (1.88 mmol/g)* (2013)
Bleach birch chemical Amino modified nanostructured MFC 200.17 Hokkanen et al.
wood pulp (3.15 mmol/g)* (2014)
Cotton fiber Reactive Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes 24.51 Xie et al. (2011)
modified nanocellulose
Cellulose sludge Sludge nanocrystals (CNCSL) 20 Liu et al. (2015)
Cellulose sludge Bioethanol nanocrystals (CNCBE) 47
Unbarked wood Phosphorylated CNC 117
Unbarked wood Phosphorylated cellulose nanofiber (CNF) 114
Cellulose sludge TEMPO-mediated oxidized CNF 67.2 Liu et al. (2016)
Fe(III) Cellulose sludge Sludge nanocrystals (CNCSL) 6.3 Liu et al. (2015)
Cellulose sludge Bioethanol nanocrystals (CNCBE) 0
Unbarked wood Phosphorylated CNC 115
Unbarked wood Phosphorylated CNF 73
Cd (II) Microfribillated Succinic anhydride modified mercerized 214.21 Hokkanen et al.
cellulose (MFC) nanocellulose (1.95 mmol/g)* (2013)
Bleach birch chemical Amino modified nanostructured MFC 472.14 Hokkanen et al.
wood pulp (4.20 mmol/g) (2014)
Rice straw Rice straw CNC 9.70 Kardam et al.
(2013)
Bleach birch chemical Carbonated hydroxyapatite (CHA) modified MFC 137.15 Hokkanen et al.
wood pulp (1.22 mmol/g)* (2014)
Pb(II) Rice straw Rice straw CNC 9.42 Kardam et al.
(2013)
Wheat straw pulp Sulfonated wheat pulp CNF 248.64 Suopajärvi et al.
(1.20 mmol/g)* (2015)
Sugarcane bagasse fiber Sugarcane bagasse fiber nanocellulose (SBFCNC) 9.51 Our study
Zn (II) Microfribillated Succinic anhydride modified mercerized 98.07 (1.50 mmol/ Hokkanen et al.
cellulose (MFC) nanocellulose g)* (2013)
Ag? Cellulose sludge Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) 34.35 Liu et al. (2013)
Cellulose sludge Cellulose nanofibers (CNF) 15.45
Crab shell powder Chitin nanocrystals (ChNC) 19.80
Cellulose sludge Sludge nanocrystals (CNCSL) 56.00 Liu et al. (2015)
Cellulose sludge Bioethanol nanocrystals (CNCBE) 55
Unbarked wood Phosphorylated CNC 136
Unbarked wood Phosphorylated CNF 120

123
Cellulose (2018) 25:4303–4330
Table 6 continued
Metal Source of nanocellulose Nanocellulose
ion
Co (II) Microfribillated Succinic anhydride modified mercerized
cellulose (MFC) nanocellulose
Values in parenthesis (*) indicates the original value and units stated in respective references
Fig. 3 Various methods in
cellulose modification
Conclusions
This review highlights recent developments, current
results and trends in the field of sugarcane bagasse
fiber cellulose nanocrystals (SBFCNC). The important
findings of SCBF and SBFCNC in polymer reinforce-
ment and heavy metal adsorption are reported. The
reinforcing ability of the SBFCNC is controlled by the
dispersibility and chemical/physical interaction with
the polymer matrix. Chemical treatment and function-
alization of SBFCNC could improve the matrix-
nanocellulose adhesion, and subsequently enhancing
the mechanical properties of polymer composites. The
SBFCNC (similar like other cellulose nanocrystals)
demonstrated the adsorption ability of heavy metal.
Suitable chemical modification on the CNC could be a
good alternative to enhance their adsorption capacity
towards heavy metal. Although much has been
accomplished in utilization of sugarcane bagasse as
polymer reinforcements, future studies should include
studying the processability of SCB and SBFCNC
4325
Adsorption References
capacity (mg/g)
76.61 (1.30 mmol/ Hokkanen et al.
g)* (2013)
reinforced composites under extensive operating con-
ditions at the pilot and industrial scales. Several key
factors like technical, economic and environmental
considerations should be taken into account. Most
studies showed that sugarcane bagasse performed well
in terms of polymer reinforcements as well as heavy
metal adsorbents. Thus, the potential of SBFCNC in
polymer reinforcement and heavy metal adsorption
should be a topic of interest in order to further utilize
this biomass resource. From the literature, most of the
polymer/CNC nanocomposites are usually prepared
using solution casting method, in order to achieve
good dispersion while avoid agglomeration of CNC.
The knowledge advancement in the production of the
polymer/CNC nanocomposites using existing com-
mercial available processing equipment (e.g., melt
compounding, extrusion, injection molding) should be
concerned in order to break through the economic
barrier for the using of CNC in the polymer industry.
We believe that comprehensive studies and extensive
experimentations on sugarcane bagasse and its
123
4326
cellulose nanocrystals stand to support further indus-
trialization of this agriculture resource and create
environment friendly materials in the foreseeable
future.
Acknowledgments This study was funded by Universiti Sains
Malaysia Research University Grant (Grant No.
1001/PBAHAN/8014024).
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