Extraction, Purification and Characterization of Nanocrystalline Cellulose from Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms: A Common Aquatic Weed Water Hyacinth

Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms, commonly called as water hyacinth, is a hydrophytic weed found in the tropical and subtropical areas. Eutrophication of the water bodies results due to its overgrowth. Many conservation steps have been taken to utilize this plant as biofertilizer, biogas and also for water purification. In the present investigation, nanocrystalline cellulose was extracted from Eichhorniacrassipes (Mart.) Solms through a series of processes viz., alkalization, bleaching, acid hydrolysis and sonication. After the chemical process, the obtained product at each stage was characterized to analyze the morphology, chemical characteristics and the thermal property. FTIR analysis reports the peaks at 1030 cm(-1), 1055 cm(-1) and 3000-2800 cm(-1), which refer to C-O-C stretching vibration and C-H symmetric stretching validating the extracted cellulose and the efficacy of the process. The onset of degradation for raw water hyacinth and extracted cellulose occurs at 253.4 degrees C and 226.9 degrees C in thermogravimetric analysis. The particle size analysis analysis for sonicated sample shows that 93.02 nm proved that the sonicated sample is in nano size. In scanning electron microscopy, the morphology changes of each step processed water hyacinth and extracted cellulose have been studied.