M K Mohamad Haafiz, S J Eichhorn, Azman Hassan, M Jawaid
Department of Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai UTM, Johor, Malaysia.
Carbohydrate polymers 2013 Apr 2In this work, we successfully isolated microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) from oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fiber-total chlorine free (TCF) pulp using acid hydrolysis method. TCF pulp bleaching carried out using an oxygen-ozone-hydrogen peroxide bleaching sequence. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy indicates that acid hydrolysis does not affect the chemical structure of the cellulosic fragments. The morphology of the hydrolyzed MCC was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), showing a compact structure and a rough surface. Furthermore, atomic force microscopy (AFM) image of the surface indicates the presence of spherical features. X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows that the MCC produced is a cellulose-I polymorph, with 87% crystallinity. The MCC obtained from OPEFB-pulp is shown to have a good thermal stability. The potential for a range of applications such as green nano biocomposites reinforced with this form of MCC and pharmaceutical tableting material is discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M K Mohamad Haafiz, S J Eichhorn, Azman Hassan, M Jawaid. Isolation and characterization of microcrystalline cellulose from oil palm biomass residue. Carbohydrate polymers. 2013 Apr 2;93(2):628-34
PMID: 23499105
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