CELLULOSE MICROFIBRILS EXTRACTED FROM WHEAT STRAW: A NOVEL APPROACH

摘要

The objective of this work was to find out the compositional characteristics of wheat straw in terms of cellulose and lignin contents and assess the suitability of wheat straw for isolation of cellulose microfibrils. The fractionation process includes formic acid/peroxyformic acid treatment, bleaching and ball milling of bleached cellulose. 39.10% Cellulose, 20.40% lignin and 25.02% of other compounds were extracted. Extracted cellulose was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron micrograph (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Morphological and thermal analyses studies showed that the extracted microfibrils had reduced length and diameter and showed good thermal stability suitable for various advanced nano technological applications.