ORIGINAL PAPER Enzyme-assisted mechanical production of cellulose nanofibrils: thermal stability Kun Zhang . Yuehua Zhang . Depeng Yan . Chenyuan Zhang . Shuangxi Nie Received: 7 May 2018 / Accepted: 3 July 2018 / Published online: 5 July 2018 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2018 Abstract The influence of enzymatic treatment on the thermal stability of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) was investigated. The unbleached bagasse pulp was treated with different dosages of xylanase, and sam- ples were taken at different grinding stages. The produced CNF were characterized by Malvern Zeta- sizer, TEM, ATR-FTIR and XRD, and the thermal stability of the CNF was evaluated using TGA. The mechanism of enzymatic treatment on the thermal stability of CNF was proposed. The results indicated that all the diameters of produced CNF were \ 100 nm. The CNF produced from original pulp has higher thermal stability than those from enzy- matic-treated pulp, and the thermal stability of CNF was decreased with the increase of enzyme dosage. The practical application of CNF was actually limited by the reduction of pyrolysis sites, so the proper retention of hemicellulose and lignin in the process of preparing CNF contributes to the improvement of the thermal stability. Kun Zhang and Yuehua Zhang have contributed equally to this work. K. Zhang Á Y. Zhang Á D. Yan Á C. Zhang Á S. Nie (&) College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, People’s Republic of China e-mail: nieshuangxi@gxu.edu.cn K. Zhang e-mail: zhangkun011@yeah.net Y. Zhang e-mail: 18364237652@163.com D. Yan e-mail: 798791084@qq.com C. Zhang e-mail: 644659411@qq.com K. Zhang Á Y. Zhang Á D. Yan Á C. Zhang Á S. Nie Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, Nanning 530004, People’s Republic of China 123 Cellulose (2018) 25:5049–5061 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-1928-7