Abstract: Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) was prepared from reed pulp with sulfuric acid hydrolysis, and the technological parameters were optimized by conducting orthogonal test. The effects of sulfuric acid mass fraction, reaction temperature and hydrolysis time on the yield of NCC were studied. The morphology of NCC was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that the sulfuric acid mass fraction has the strongest effect on the yield of NCC, reaction temperature is the second, and the hydrolysis time has a weak influence on the yield among the three paprameters. The optimizing condition is sulfuric acid mass fraction 52 %, reaction temperature 47 ℃ and hydrolysis time 4 h for NCC preparation from reed pulp with sulfuric acid hydrolysis. The yield of NCC is the highest (82.81 %) under the optimized condition. The morphology of NCC from reed pulp appeares rod-like, and the lengths of NCC reach up to nanometer grade under TEM.

Key words: reed pulp, nanocrystalline cellulose, orthogonal optimization, morphology