Microcellulose Vs Nanocellulose – A Review

Cellulose is the most abundant and renewable natural semi-crystalline polysaccharide. This biopolymer is an inexhaustible source of natural fibers (NFs), and valuable raw material for the production of microparticles of microcrystalline (MCC) and powdered cellulose (PC), as well as other cellulose micro-products, which are widely used in biomedicine, production of food additives, plastics, and other materials. In addition, cellulose has a nano-fibrillar architecture that promotes the release of free cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and nanocrystals (CNCs). This review article describes the preparation methods, structural characteristics, properties, and applications of different types of micro- (NFs, MCC, and PC) and nano-cellulose (CNFs, CNCs). Two main shortcomings hindering the wide application of various types of Nano cellulose (NC) were discovered, such as high production expenses and the difficulty of competing with commercial types of micro-cellulose. To reduce the production cost of NC, a waste-free technology can be used, which allows completely utilize materials and chemicals, and produce cheap nanocrystalline aggregates (NCA) with zero emission of liquid and solid waste. Due to the low cost, such a nanostructured product, NCA, will be quite competitive with commercial micro-celluloses (MCC, PC, etc.) and can be used, e.g., as filler and thickener.