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Review
. 2022 Apr 13;23(8):4310.
doi: 10.3390/ijms23084310.

Lignocellulosic Biomass Waste-Derived Cellulose Nanocrystals and Carbon Nanomaterials: A Review

Lindokuhle Precious Magagula  1 , Clinton Michael Masemola  1   2 , Muhammed As'ad Ballim  1 , Zikhona Nobuntu Tetana  1   2   3 , Nosipho Moloto  1 , Ella Cebisa Linganiso  1   2   3   4
Affiliations
Review

Lignocellulosic Biomass Waste-Derived Cellulose Nanocrystals and Carbon Nanomaterials: A Review

Lindokuhle Precious Magagula et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Rapid population and economic growth, excessive use of fossil fuels, and climate change have contributed to a serious turn towards environmental management and sustainability. The agricultural sector is a big contributor to (lignocellulosic) waste, which accumulates in landfills and ultimately gets burned, polluting the environment. In response to the current climate-change crisis, policymakers and researchers are, respectively, encouraging and seeking ways of creating value-added products from generated waste. Recently, agricultural waste has been regularly appearing in articles communicating the production of a range of carbon and polymeric materials worldwide. The extraction of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and carbon quantum dots (CQDs) from biomass waste partially occupies some of the waste-recycling and management space. Further, the new materials generated from this waste promise to be effective and competitive in emerging markets. This short review summarizes recent work in the area of CNCs and CQDs synthesised from biomass waste. Synthesis methods, properties, and prospective application of these materials are summarized. Current challenges and the benefits of using biomass waste are also discussed.

Keywords: agricultural waste; carbon quantum dots; cellulose nanocrystals; lignocellulosic biomass.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A schematic showing some of the possible extracts from LCB.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The histogram (top) depicts the number of publications containing “extraction of cellulose nanocrystals” from 2012 to 2021, obtained from the Web of Science in February 2022. The pie chart (bottom) depicts the number of publications (percentage per research field) mentioning “extraction of cellulose nanocrystals” from 2012 to 2021, obtained from the Web of Science in February 2022.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Typical and recent pre-treatment methods for LCB.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The process of CNC extraction using the conventional acid-hydrolysis method.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Different applications for CNCs reported in the literature.
Figure 6
Figure 6
A schematic representation of the “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches for the synthesis of CQDs.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The number of publications containing “carbon dots” from 2012 to 2021 (a), and (b) the number of publications containing “carbon dots from agricultural waste” from 2012 to 2021. Data obtained from Web of Science in February 2022.
Figure 8
Figure 8
UV–vis spectra of (left) C-CDs, P-CDs, and PS-CDs and (right) CS-CDs and S-CDs. Adapted with permission from [108], Copyright {2020}, Elsevier.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Fluorescence emission spectra at different excitation wavelengths of CQDs prepared from kiwifruit peels. Adapted with permission from [111], Copyright {2022}, Elsevier.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Prospective application for carbon quantum dots.
Figure 11
Figure 11
(a) Fluorescence spectra of NCSs with different concentrations of Fe3+ (5–3000 μM); (b) Changes in the fluorescence intensity ratio (F/F0) of N-CSs after the addition of various metal ions. Adapted with permission from [77], Copyright {2021}, IEEE.
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