Sugar palm nanofibrillated cellulose (Arenga pinnata (Wurmb.) Merr): Effect of cycles on their yield, physic-chemical, morphological and thermal behavior

• Published in: International journal of biological macromolecules 2019-02, Vol.123, p.379-388
• Main Authors: Ilyas, R.A., Sapuan, S.M., Ishak, M.R., Zainudin, E.S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: High pressurize homogenization (HPH); Sugar palm nanofibrillated cellulose; Thermal behavior
• ISSN: 0141-8130; 1879-0003
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2018.11.124

Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFCs) were extracted from sugar palm fibres (SPS) in two separate stages; delignification and mercerization to remove lignin and hemicellulose, respectively. Subsequently, the obtained cellulose fibres were then mechanically extracted into nanofibres using high pressurized homogenization (HPH). The diameter distribution sizes of the isolated nanofibres were dependent on the cycle number of HPH treatment. TEM micro-images displayed the decreasing trend of NFCs diameter, from 21.37 to 5.5 nm when the number of cycle HPH was increased from 5 to 15 cycles, meanwhile TGA and XRD analysis showed that the degradation temperature and crystallinity of the NFCs were slightly increased from 347 to 347.3 °C and 75.38 to 81.19% respectively, when the number of cycles increased. Others analysis also were carried on such as FT-IR, FESEM, AFM, physical properties, zeta potential and yield analysis. The isolated NFCs may be potentially applied in various application, such as tissue engineering scaffolds, bio-nanocomposites, filtration media, bio-packaging and etc. •Successful isolation of sugar palm nanofibrillated cellulose from sugar palm fibre by a chemo-mechanical method.•High pressurize homogenization (HPH) process with 3 variables cycles of 5, 10 and 15 times cycle were used to obtain SPNFCs.•TEM, FESEM and AFM micrograph and zeta sizer analysis showed the thread-shape and nano-size of SPNFCs.•The SPNFCs was of ranging 5.5–21.37 nm in diameter, highly crystalline in nature and high thermal stability.•TGA and XRD analysis showed improvement in thermal and crystallinity of SPNFCs.