Influence of alkaline hydrogen peroxide pre-hydrolysis on the isolation of microcrystalline cellulose from oil palm fronds

• Published in: International journal of biological macromolecules 2017-02, Vol.95, p.1228-1234
• Main Authors: Owolabi, Abdulwahab F., Haafiz, M.K. Mohamad, Hossain, Md. Sohrab, Hussin, M. Hazwan, Fazita, M.R. Nurul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alkaline hydrogen peroxide; Arecaceae - chemistry; Cellulose - chemistry; Cellulose - isolation & purification; Chlorides - chemistry; Hydrochloric Acid - chemistry; Hydrogen Peroxide - chemistry; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Hydrolysis; Microcrystalline cellulose; Oil palm fronds; Plant Leaves - chemistry; Plant Stems - chemistry
• ISSN: 0141-8130; 1879-0003
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2016.11.016

•Microcrystalline cellulose was isolated from pre-hydrolysed oil palm fronds waste.•Cellulose I and cellulose II polymorphs were obtained from the pre-hydrolysed oil palm fronds.•An increase of the CrI value was observed with a rise in the AHP concentrations.•There was an improvement in the thermal stability of the OPF-MCC in comparison with the raw OPF.•OPF-MCC shows good potential as green filler or reinforcement in composites In the present study, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was isolated from oil palm fronds (OPF) using chemo-mechanical process. Wherein, alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) was utilized to extract OPF fibre at different AHP concentrations. The OPF pulp fibre was then bleached with acidified sodium chlorite solution followed by the acid hydrolysis using hydrochloric acid. Several analytical methods were conducted to determine the influence of AHP concentration on thermal properties, morphological properties, microscopic and crystalline behaviour of isolated MCC. Results showed that the MCC extracted from OPF fibres had fibre diameters of 7.55–9.11nm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses revealed that the obtained microcrystalline fibre had both celluloses I and cellulose II polymorphs structure, depending on the AHP concentrations. The Fourier transmission infrared (FTIR) analyses showed that the AHP pre-hydrolysis was successfully removed hemicelluloses and lignin from the OPF fibre. The crystallinity of the MCC was increased with the AHP concentrations. The degradation temperature of MCC was about 300°C. The finding of the present study showed that pre-treatment process potentially influenced the quality of the isolation of MCC from oil palm fronds.