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Increased solubility of plant core pulp cellulose for regenerated hydrogels through electron beam irradiation

High cellulose solubility is an essential to successful production of regenerated cellulose, from which hydrogels can be produced. Additionally, some pretreatment usually facilitates cellulose solubility. Bleached cellulose pulp from kenaf core (BK), consisting of lignin (0.3%), hemicellulose (5.2%)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cellulose (London) 2018-09, Vol.25 (9), p.4993-5006
Main Authors: Mohammad Padzil, Farah Nadia, Gan, Sinyee, Zakaria, Sarani, Mohamad, Siti Fatahiyah, Mohamed, Nor Hasimah, Seo, Yung Bum, Ellis, Amanda V.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:High cellulose solubility is an essential to successful production of regenerated cellulose, from which hydrogels can be produced. Additionally, some pretreatment usually facilitates cellulose solubility. Bleached cellulose pulp from kenaf core (BK), consisting of lignin (0.3%), hemicellulose (5.2%) and ash (0%), was treated with an electron beam irradiation (EBI) at 10, 30, 50 and 70 kGy. The BK and irradiated bleached cellulose pulp (IK) were then dissolved in either sodium hydroxide/urea or lithium hydroxide/urea solvents which subsequently crosslinked with epichlorohydrin (ECH) solution to stabilize the formation of regenerated cellulose hydrogels. The amount of α-cellulose component in IK samples decreased as much as 38% and caused the viscosity average molecular weight ( M v ) and degree of polymerization of IK samples to be reduced significantly by 84 and 87%, respectively. This resulted in an increase in cellulose solubility (up to 30%) for the IK samples in both solvent systems. However, this treatment resulted in a reduction in the overall cellulose fibre strength. X-ray diffraction of the hydrogels showed a transformation from cellulose I to amorphous cellulose. These hydrogels exhibited a higher degree of swelling, transparency and porosity compared to hydrogels prepared from non-irradiated pulp.
ISSN:0969-0239
1572-882X
DOI:10.1007/s10570-018-1933-x