Nanolignocellulose Extracted from Environmentally Undesired Prosopis juliflora

Rising sustainability demands the search of new low-market-value sources of lignocellulosic biomass as raw material for nanocellulose processing. In this paper, we accordingly propose the isolation of nanocellulose from Prosopis juliflora, an abundant but environmentally undesired tree. P. juliflora wood was powered, refined by steam explosion and bleaching, and subsequently used to isolate cellulose nanocrystals and nanofibers by means of acid hydrolysis and mechanical fibrillation. The derived nanocrystals had a rod-shaped structure with an average diameter of 20 nm and length of 150 nm, whereas the nanofibers had a diameter of 10 nm and length in micron size. Moreover, we report a simple method to isolate nanolignocellulose by using partially bleached P. juliflora as feedstock. The presence of lignin provided antioxidant and antimicrobial activity to nanocellulose, as well as hydrophobicity and increased thermal stability. The study demonstrates the successful use of P. juliflora to extract functional nanomaterials, which compensate for its environmental concern and declining market interest.