Fatah, Ireana Yusra A. and Khalil, H. P. S. Abdul and Hossain, Md. Sohrab and Aziz, Astimar A. and Davoudpour, Yalda and Dungani, Rudi and Bhat, Amir
(2014)
Exploration of a Chemo-Mechanical Technique for the Isolation
of Nanofibrillated Cellulosic Fiber from Oil Palm Empty Fruit
Bunch as a Reinforcing Agent in Composites Materials.
Polymers, 6 (10).
pp. 2611-2624.
ISSN 2073-4360
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to determine the influence of sulphuric acid
hydrolysis and high-pressure homogenization as an effective chemo-mechanical process
for the isolation of quality nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC). The cellulosic fiber was isolated
from oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) using acid hydrolysis methods and, subsequently,
homogenized using a high-pressure homogenizer to produce NFC. The structural analysis
and the crystallinity of the raw fiber and extracted cellulose were carried out by Fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The morphology
and thermal stability were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission
electron microscopy (TEM) and thermogravimetric (TGA) analyses, respectively. The FTIR
results showed that lignin and hemicellulose were removed effectively from the extracted
cellulose nanofibrils. XRD analysis revealed that the percentage of crystallinity was increased from raw EFB to microfibrillated cellulose (MFC), but the decrease for NFC
might due to a break down the hydrogen bond. The size of the NFC was determined within
the 5 to 10 nm. The TGA analysis showed that the isolated NFC had high thermal stability.
The finding of present study reveals that combination of sulphuric acid hydrolysis and
high-pressure homogenization could be an effective chemo-mechanical process to isolate
cellulose nanofibers from cellulosic plant fiber for reinforced composite materials.
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