Effects of extraction methods on morphology, structure and properties of bamboo cellulose

Abstract Bamboo cellulose has been widely used as reinforcement for polymers or template material for composites manufacturing due to its high strength-weight ratio and biodegradability. In this work, effects of four extraction methods on the morphology, structure and properties of bamboo cellulose are investigated, including hydrothermal extraction (HT), standard alkali extraction (SA), ambient condition extraction (AC) and two-stage extraction (TS). Among these methods, pure cellulose I with high crystallinity and intact single cell morphology can be obtained by TS. The cellulose extracted by SA have complete cell morphology, mixed structure of cellulose I and II, outstanding toughness and thermal stability. By contrast, there are hemicellulose residues of the cellulose extracted by HT. But it performs better in mechanical properties and thermal stability. The advantage of AC is that the pure cellulose I can be obtained without thermal history, but treatment time is relatively long, resulting in the damage of cellulose morphology.