Exploring crystalline structural variations of cellulose during pulp beating of tobacco stems.

•Crystalline structural variations of cellulose during pulp beating were explored.•The evolution of cellulose crystallinity index was proved to be not linear.•The whole beating process might be presumably divided into two phases.•The crystallite sizes of 101 and 101¯ lattice planes showed an obvious fluctuation.•The crystallite sizes and d-spacings from 002 lattice planes exhibited little change.