This document specifies procedures for the laboratory determination of the total elemental sulfur and
the sulfate half-ester content of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) by inductively coupled plasma-optical
emission spectroscopy and conductometric titration, respectively, including sample preparation,
measurement methods and data analysis.
This document is applicable to the characterization of CNCs:
a) with all monovalent counterions (particularly hydronium and sodium cations);
b) which are either in the never-dried state in aqueous suspension, or have been redispersed from a
dried form; and
c) which have been extracted from any naturally occurring cellulose source using a range of sulfuric
acid hydrolysis conditions, or have been sulfated post-hydrolysis using sulfuric acid.