Structural Characteristics and Thermal Properties of Native Cellulose

In 1838 the French chemist Anselme Payen discovered and isolated cellulose from green plants [1-2]. After more than 170 years of the discovery of the “sugar of the plant cell wall”, consumers, industry and government are increasingly demanding products from renewable and sustainable resources that are biodegradable, non-petroleum based, carbon neutral and at the same time generating low environmental, animal/human health and safety risks [3]. Therefore, cellulose is one of the most abundant material on earth and the most common organic polymer, representing about 1.5 x 1012 tons of the annual biomass production [1,3]. Cellulose is considered an almost inexhaustible source of raw material for the increasing demand for environmentally friendly and biocompatible products. Therefore, wood remains one of the most important raw material source for obtaining cellulose, but other sources can be used as well. Natural cellulose-based materials (wood, hemp, cotton, sisal, ramie, etc.) have been used as engineering materials for thousands of years and their use currently continues as demonstrated by the huge number of forest products-based worldwide industries, such as paper, textiles, etc. Such cellulose derivatives produced on an industrial scale are used for coatings, laminates, optical films and sorption media, as well as for property-determining additives in building materials, composites and nanocomposites, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs and cosmetics [2-3]. As a consequence, several reviews and scientific papers have been published on cellulose research in the last two decades [2-4].