Isolation and Characterization of Cellulose Nanocrystals from Oil Palm Mesocarp Fiber

Buong Woei Chieng; Syn Huey Lee; Nor Azowa Ibrahim; Yoon Yee Then; Yuet Ying Loo

doi:10.3390/polym9080355

Isolation and Characterization of Cellulose Nanocrystals from Oil Palm Mesocarp Fiber

Polymers (Basel). 2017 Aug 11;9(8):355. doi: 10.3390/polym9080355.

Authors

Buong Woei Chieng^{1

2}, Syn Huey Lee³, Nor Azowa Ibrahim^{4

5}, Yoon Yee Then⁶, Yuet Ying Loo⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia. chieng891@gmail.com.
² Materials Processing and Technology Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia. chieng891@gmail.com.
³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia. music_huey@yahoo.com.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia. norazowa@upm.edu.my.
⁵ Materials Processing and Technology Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia. norazowa@upm.edu.my.
⁶ Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, No. 126, Jalan Jalil Perkasa 19, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia. thenyoonyee@imu.edu.my.
⁷ Department of Food Science, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia. yuetying88@gmail.com.

Abstract

The aim was to explore the utilization of oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF) as a source for the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC). OPMF was first treated with alkali and then bleached before the production of CNC by acid hydrolysis (H₂SO₄). The produced materials were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a transmission electron microscope (TEM). It was proven that acid hydrolysis can increase the crystallinity of bleached OPMF and reduce the dimension of cellulose to nano scale. Changes in the peaks of the FTIR spectrum at 2852 (C-H stretching), 1732 (C=O stretching) and 1234 cm^-1 (C-O stretching) indicated that the alkali treatment completely removed hemicelluloses and lignin from the fiber surface. This can be seen from the thermogram obtained from the TGA characterization. Morphological characterization clearly showed the formation of rod-shaped CNCs. The promising results prove that OPMF is a valuable source for the production of CNC.

Keywords: cellulose; mesocarp fiber; oil palm.