title: Management of citrus waste by switching in the production of nanocellulose.
abstract: Citrus fruit processing industries produce a vast quantity of waste materials as peel and pulp that are not handled properly. In present study, waste generated from citrus has been used for extraction of cellulose and nanocellulose. The aggregated cellulose, derived after alkaline treatment, was acid hydrolysed; resulted in reduction of the size of cellulose fibre. The cellulose showed amorphous structure revealed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Scanning electron microscopy analysis explained densely packed structure of nanocellulose. High magnification revealed break points in cellulose fibre due to acidic treatment; looked like carbon nanotubes. The simple solubility test demonstrated that different solvents had different effects on the dissolution of nanocellulose. The study reveals that citrus peel is also a good candidate of cellulose that can be utilised for different applications.
authors.affiliation: Preston Institute of Nanoscience and Technology, Preston University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Naveed
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Javeed
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Akhtar
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical and Material Engineering (SCME), National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Nasir Mehmood
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Attarad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan. ziachaudhary@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zia
mesh_terms: D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry*; D002957:Citrus; D005511:Food Handling; D005638:Fruit; D005735:Garbage; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D002482:Cellulose