Abstract: Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) was prepared from reed pulp with sulfuric acid hydrolysis and acetic acid to pretreat reed pulp. The size and morphology of NCC were determined and analyzed to explore the preparation methods of size uniformity NCC. The results show that the yield of reed pulp NCC was 61.50%, and the yield of acetic acid to pretreat reed pulp NCC was 63.13%(NCC-1), 62.30%(NCC-2) and 62.15%(NCC-3) for three replicates, respectively. Acetic acid recovery rate of acetic acid pretreated reed pulp NCC was 75.00%(NCC-1), 78.15%(NCC-2) and 77.56%(NCC-3), respectively. NCC size analysis shows that average size of reed pulp NCC and acetic acid to pretreat reed pulp NCC for the three replicates were different. Size distribution of acetic acid pretreated reed pulp NCC-1 was more uniform, and the average size of reed pulp NCC-1 pretreated with acetic acid was 185.3 nm. The morphology of reed pulp NCC and reed pulp NCC-1 with acetic acid pretreated were observed as rod-like with transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

Key words: nanocrystalline cellulose, acetic acid pretreatment, reed pulp, rod-like, size uniformity