Thermal decomposition of native cellulose: Influence on crystallite size

Abstract The thermal degradation behavior of crystalline cellulose has been investigated using thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis, and derivative thermogravimetry in a nitrogen atmosphere. Three cellulose samples, Halocynthia , cotton, and commercial microcrystalline cellulose Funacel, were used in this study to analyze the influence on crystallite size. They all belongs to cellulose I β type and those crystallite sizes calculated from the X-ray diffractometry profiles by Scherrer equation were very different in the order Halocynthia  > cotton > Funacel. The thermal decomposition of cellulose shifted to higher temperatures with increasing crystallite size. However, activation energies for the thermal degradation were the almost the same among the samples: 159–166 kJ mol −1 . These results indicated that the crystal structure does not affect the activation energy of the thermal degradation but the crystallite size affects the thermal degradation temperature.