title: An improved X-ray diffraction method for cellulose crystallinity measurement.
abstract: We show in this work a modified X-ray diffraction method to determine cellulose crystallinity index (CrI). Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) derived from bleached wood pulp was used as a model substrate. Rietveld refinement was applied with consideration of March-Dollase preferred orientation at the (001) plane. In contrast to most previous methods, three distinct amorphous peaks identified from new model samples which used to calculate CrI. A 2 theta range from 10° to 75° was found to be more suitable to determine CrI and crystallite structural parameters such as d-spacing and crystallite size. This method enables a more reliable measurement of CrI of cellulose and may be applicable to other types of cellulose polymorphs.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Washington State University, Richland, WA 99354, United States.
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.affiliation: Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, United States. Electronic address: Mark.Bowden@pnnl.gov.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bowden
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Washington State University, Richland, WA 99354, United States.
authors.forename: Elvie E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Washington State University, Richland, WA 99354, United States. Electronic address: x.zhang@wsu.edu.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: Cellulose crystallite; Cellulose polymorphs; Crystallinity index; Nanocrystalline cellulose; X-ray diffraction