ORIGINAL RESEARCH Biocomposites of synthetic polymer modified microcrystalline jute cellulose particles and their hemolytic behavior M. Ahsanur Rabbi . M. Mahbubor Rahman . Hideto Minami . M. Abdur Rahman . S. Manjura Hoque . Hasan Ahmad Received: 24 April 2019 / Accepted: 21 August 2019 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract Natural jute fiber can be used as a good source of biocomposite for application in biomedical field. Here microcrystalline jute cellulose (MCJC) particles were first prepared by the hydrolysis of bleached jute pulp with H 2 SO 4 and the effect of acid strength was examined. A maximum crystallinity index of 89% was found for MCJC particles prepared by hydrolysis with 30% H 2 SO 4 . The surface of MCJC particles possessing the highest crystallinity index was then modified with various synthetic polymers like poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA), poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA), and poly(lauryl methacrylate-methyl methacrylate) P(LMA-MMA) via in situ seeded free radical polymerization. The values of crystallinity index decreased to 74, 66 and 76% in MCJC/PHEMA, MCJC/PGMA and MCJC/ P(LMA-MMA) composite particles respectively. The adsorption magnitudes of biomolecules on composites were relatively high compared to those on MCJC particles. Lower hemolytic activities ( \ 1.0%) con- firmed the biocompatible nature of composite parti- cles, a requisite property for any composite desired for efficient biorelated applications. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-019-02706-4) con- tains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. M. A. Rabbi  M. M. Rahman  M. A. Rahman  H. Ahmad (&) Research Laboratory of Polymer Colloids and Nanomaterials Group, Department of Chemistry, Rajshahi University, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh e-mail: samarhass@yahoo.com; hahmad@ru.ac.bd H. Minami Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan S. M. Hoque Materials Science Division, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Dhaka, Bangladesh 123 Cellulose https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-019-02706-4