Characterization of Cellulose Nanocrystals Grafted with Organic Acid Chloride of Different Sizes

In the work presented in this article surface chemical modification was applied to ramie cellulose nanocrystals by grafting organic acid chlorides presenting different lengths of the aliphatic chain. The objective of this surface chemical treatment was to enhance the nonpolar nature of the grafted nanocrystals and improve their dispersibility in a nonpolar polymeric matrix. The occurrence of the chemical modification was evaluated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, the degree of crystallinity by X-ray diffraction, and the morphology by scanning electron microscopy with field emission gun (FEG-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The morphology and crystallinity provided by different experimental methods were carefully compared.