Structural changes of Salix miyabeana cellulose fibres during dilute-acid steam explosion: Impact of reaction temperature and retention time

• Extraction of cellulose fibres by dilute-acid steam explosion has been investigated.
• Increasing severity factor will signally affect the structure of cellulose fibres.
• Correlations show fibre structures changing proportionally with severities factors.
• The steam process could be applicable to the extraction of microcrystalline cellulose.

Dilute-acid steam explosion of Salix miyabeana has been carried out to understand the effect of processing conditions, expressed through a severity factors (SFT), on the changes in cellulose fibre structures in a perspective of using these in polymer composites. This thermo-chemico-mechanical extraction leads to the isolation of cellulose fibres as observed by SEM images. Fibre length as well as length to diameter aspect ratios decreased with the severity of the treatment. Likewise, fibre whiteness diminished with an increasing severity factor, which could be a tangible effect of physical degradation. Variations in crystallinity seemed to be dependent upon the reaction temperature, generally decreasing with regards to retention time. Above a severity threshold, a structural disorganization was observed. Overall, dilute-acid steam explosion was shown to be a valuable cellulose extraction process that can provide a variety of fibre structures.