Study of the Structural Properties of Microcrystalline Cellulose (MCC) Particles from Distillers Grains (DG) by XRD, FTIR and SEM

In this study, we proposed the use of distillers grains (DG) as a source for production of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) due to its high content of cellulose. The main objective of this work was to extract the distillers grains microcrystalline cellulose (DMCC) particles and investigate the structure characteristic by SEM, XRD and FTIR. The images of SEM for DG and DMCC particles show clear differences with modifications of DG fiber structure. The acid hydrolysis changed the crystallinity index and crystallite sizes of the DMCC particles compared to their source materials. In addition, we observe a change in the crystalline structure from X-ray diffractograms. The intensity of each peak changed obviously, demonstrating structure transformation induced by acid hydrolysis took place during the preparation of DMCC.