Research paperIsolation and characterization of nanocrystalline cellulose from sugar palm fibres (Arenga Pinnata)
Introduction
Nanocrystalline celluloses (NCCs) isolated from plant fibers attracted a tremendous interest in material science due to its appealing intrinsic properties including nano-dimension, high surface area (100 m2 g−1) (Islam, Alam, & Zoccola, 2013; Savadekar & Mhaske, 2012; Silvério, Flauzino Neto, Dantas, & Pasquini, 2013), high aspect ratio of 100 (Rosa et al., 2010; Savadekar & Mhaske, 2012; Tee et al., 2013a, Tee et al., 2013b), high crystallinity, low density, high mechanical strength, unique morphology along with availability, renewability and biodegrability (Azizi Samir, Alloin, & Dufresne, 2005; Ilyas, Sapuan, Ishak, & Zainudin, 2017; Ng et al., 2015). Cellulose is the product of biosynthesis from bacteria and plants, whereas the general term “nanocrystalline cellulose” refers to cellulosic isolation or extraction materials, with the outstanding feature of nano-scale structural dimension. The main component of plant fibres is cellulose, semicrystalline polymer, which composed of poly(1,4-β-d-anhydroglucopyranose) units. These units are formed from strong hydrogen bond between hydroxyl groups. Other main components that made up natural fibres structure are lignin and hemicellulose. Lignin is a highly cross-linked phenolic polymer, whereas hemicellulose is a branched multiple polysaccharide polymer composed of different types of sugars comprising xylose, glucose, arabinose, mannose and galactose. However, both lignin and hemicellulose are amorphous polymers. Strong acid hydrolysis is a well-known process for the removal of the amorphous region and isolation of NCCs from natural fibers. Under controlled conditions, acid hydrolysis allows removal of the amorphous regions of cellulose fibres whilst keeping the crystalline domains intact in the form of crystalline nanoparticles. In fact, removing the amorphous region influences the structure, thermal stability, crystallinity as well as surface morphology of the fibres (Ilyas Rushdan et al., 2017). Previous studies done by Deepa et al. (2011a) and Li et al. (2009), have shown improvement in the thermal stability and crystallinity during the isolation of NCCs.
In the past decades, many different resources have been used to prepare NCCs, such as hard- and softwood fibres (Beck-Candanedo, Roman, & Gray, 2005), wheat straw (Dufresne, Cavaillé, & Helbert, 1997), sisal (Garcia de Rodriguez, Thielemans, & Dufresne, 2006a; Garcia de Rodriguez, Thielemans, & Dufresne, 2006b; Morán, Alvarez, Cyras, & Vázquez, 2008), pineapple leaves (Cherian et al., 2010a), coconut husk fibres (Rosa et al., 2010), mulberry (Li et al., 2009), bananas (Deepa et al., 2011a), sugarcane bagasse (de Morais Teixeira et al., 2011), bamboo (Brito, Pereira, Putaux, & Jean, 2012), mengkuang leaves (Sheltami, Abdullah, Ahmad, Dufresne, & Kargarzadeh, 2012), jute (Cao, Ding, Yu, & Al-Deyab, 2012), rice straw (Lu & Hsieh, 2012), eucalyptus wood (Tonoli et al., 2012), soy hull (Flauzino Neto, Silvério, Dantas, & Pasquini, 2013), cotton linter (Morais et al., 2013) and kenaf bast (Zaini, Jonoobi, Tahir, & Karimi, 2013). The purpose of the isolation of NCCs is as reinforcements in the field of nanocomposite that has gained tremendous attention since it was first examined by Favier et al. (1995). However, no studies on the production, composition, or properties of natural nanocrystalline cellulose fibres from sugar palm fibres have been found in the literature.
Sugar palm tree also known as Arenga Pinnata is a popular multipurpose tree dominantly found in tropical regions. It belongs to the Palmae family which has about 181 genera with around 2600 known species (Ishak et al., 2013). The fruit can be eaten as sweet meal and the fibres can be used for weaving hat and mats, making ropes, brooms, road construction, brushes, roof materials, cushion and shelters for fish breeding. Besides that, its stem core can be used for making sago flour and root as tea to cure bladder stones; insect repellent and posts for pepper, boards, tool handles, water pipes, musical instruments like drums (Adawiyah, Sasaki, & Kohyama, 2013; Ishak et al., 2013, Martini et al., 2012; Mogea, Seibert, & Smits, 1991). Up to the present time, the usage of sugar palm fibres has progressed to another successive level especially to numerous engineering applications. In example, it is being used for underground and underwater cables, substitution of geo-textile fiberglass reinforcement in road construction for soil stabilization as well as a used as reinforcement in polymer matrix composite in material engineering (Ishak et al., 2013). Several studies have shown that sugar palm fibres have a huge potential to be used in various polymer composite application (Bachtiar, Sapuan, & Hamdan, 2008, Bachtiar, Sapuan, & Hamdan, 2010, Bachtiar, Salit, Zainudin, Abdan, & Dahlan, 2011; Ishak, Leman, Sapuan, Salleh, & Misri, 2009; Sahari, Sapuan, Ismarrubie, & Rahman, 2011, Sahari, Sapuan, Zainudin, & Maleque, 2013a, Sahari, Sapuan, Zainudin, & Maleque, 2013b). This study continues with sugar palm-derived cellulose reinforced with starch polymer (Sanyang, Sapuan, Jawaid, Ishak, & Sahari, 2016). To the best of our knowledge, no study on sugar palm nanocrystalline cellulose (SPNCCs) has been found in the literature. Thus the aim of the current study was to extract and characterize nanocrystalline cellulose (NCCs) from sugar palm fibres.
In this paper, cellulose and NCCs were extracted from sugar palm fibres by chemical and mechanical methods. The effects of different chemical treatments on sugar palm fibres were investigated by determining their chemical composition (TAPPI standard), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface area by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), degree of polymerization (DP), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The aspect ratio and dimensions of the isolated NCCs were determined by using zeta potential nanoparticle sizer, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
Section snippets
Materials
Sugar palm fibres gathered in Bahau (Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia) were used in this study. The chemical reagents used were sodium chlorite, acetic acid, sodium hydroxide and sulphuric acid (purchased from Sigma–Aldrich).
Extraction of cellulose
Cellulose fibres can be extracted from sugar palm fibres (SPF) using two main processes, which are delignification and mercerization (Ilyas et al., 2017, Sanyang et al., 2016; Tawakkal, Talib, Abdan, & Ling, 2012; Tee et al., 2013a, Tee et al., 2013b). The initial process was
Results and discussion
The chemical compositions of the sugar palm fibres were affected by the chemical extraction process, NaClO2 followed by NaOH. From raw sugar palm fibres as feedstock, the initial stage of the extraction process was bleaching treatment. This treatment was done to remove lignin (Dufresne, Dupeyre, & Vignon, 2000; Sheltami et al., 2012). The bleaching treatment effects are depending on the temperature and pH. Usually, the reaction happens at high temperature and low pH. The second stage was alkali
Conclusion
SPNCCs was successfully extracted and isolated from sugar palm fibers using the treatment of delignification (NaClO2), mercerization (NaOH) and hydrolysis (H2SO4). The chemical composition analysis showed an increase trending in the cellulose content after each chemical treatment; it therefore changed from 43.88%% in the raw sugar palm fiber to 81.5% in the bleached fibres and to 82.33% in the alkali-treated fibres. FTIR results also showed that the chemical treatments of delignification (NaClO2
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to appreciate University Putra Malaysia for financial support through the Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) scholarship. The authors are thankful to Dr. Muhammad Lamin Sanyang for guideline throughout the experiment. The authors also thanks the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) and Dr. Rushdan Ibrahim for their advice and fruitful discussions.
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