Sustainable preparation of surface functionalized cellulose nanocrystals and their application for Pickering emulsions

Herein, a highly efficient and sustainable approach, namely HCl-catalyzed para-toluene sulfonic acid/Formic acid (p-TsOH/FA) hydrolysis was reported to produce surface functionalized cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). The optimized CNCs showed a high yield (79.6 %), high crystallinity (70.6 %) and high thermal stability (maximal weight loss temperature around 350 °C). In addition, the as-prepared CNCs possess excellent ability to stabilize oil-water due to the introduction of functional formyl groups, which could be promising stabilizers for Pickering emulsions (PEs). At a fixed oil-water ratio (2:8, v:v), the CNCs with the concentration of 0.5 wt% to 2.0 wt% could stabilize peanut oil to make PEs, and the emulsion droplets were