Changes of crystallinity index and crystallite size in cotton cellulose nanopar by ball milling

Crystallinity (CI) and crystallite size (Dhkl) of cellulose nanoparticles obtained from commercial cellulose (cotton) have been evaluated after a ball milling by the deconvolution method. Ball milling was used to achieve cellulose nanoparticles based on the values of crystallite size previously reported. Variations in the CI were found in a range from 88% to 45%. Crystallite sizes were evaluated in an initial value from 4.99 nm that decrease until 1.41 nm by ball milling. A clear dependency of CI and Dhkl was found since ball milling decrease the CI until a re-Agglomeration of the samples is found. Results for Dhkl reveals that cotton cellulose is a soft material easy to grind into nanoparticles in a heterogenous way as authors reported before. Cross-contamination due to higher quantities of silicon oxide was found after two-hour milling. This study presents an insight into the behavior of cellulose nanoparticles using ball milling and the selection of a time in which non-cross contamination or re-Agglomerations have been found.