*Cellulose Nanocrystals: From Classical Hydrolysis to the Use of Deep Eutectic Solvents DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89878*

cellulosic source is not totally pure, previous steps are required. Indeed, alkali treatment (generally NaOH) and bleaching steps (generally acetic acid, aqueous chlorite) are essential to remove impurities, especially lignin and hemicelluloses when starting directly from biomass or even biowaste. Cellulose content of raw material is thus drastically increased. Note that a lot of studies have investigated the production of CNC from less conventional sources like rice, soy, and others in order to valorize food and organic waste [20, 21]. Final yield and morphology of CNC are really dependent on the cellulosic source and on the hydrolysis conditions. Indeed, optimization and control of the acid hydrolysis have been the subject of several publications. If common parameters are the hydrolysis with 64 wt% sulfuric acid at 40–45°C during about 30 min, it has been proved that variation of one of the parameters can largely influence the reaction yield as well as CNC properties. For example, by increasing of 10 min the time of hydrolysis, it has been shown by Flauzino Neto et al. that crystalline parts are destructed inducing a significant decrease in length [20]. Beck et al. [22] have confirmed this point, admitting that too long times of reaction induce degradation of cellulose but that too short times induce only large and non-dispersible fibers and large aggregates. Only specific reaction times yield to a well-dispersed colloidal suspension of CNC. Chen et al. [17] have confirmed that best yield and CNC properties are obtained with previously mentioned standard conditions. Moreover, the importance of acid concentration relative to cellulose fibers is highlighted too, since a too high concentration could be too drastic and a too low concentration insufficient for the hydrolysis efficiency. At the end of the reaction, mixture media are first diluted with distilled water to quench the reaction, then submitting to several separation steps with centrifugation cycles and filtrations and washed by dialysis against distilled water for several days, in order to remove unreacted compounds and chemicals. In some cases, they use also NaOH to neutralize pH which can modify the crystallinity and the surface ions. After dialysis, a final centrifugation cycle or another filtration process aims to remove aggregates. CNC suspension is finally sonicated in order to well disperse the nanocrystal and obtain colloidal suspension thanks to dimensions and sulfate half ester groups bearing by CNC.
