Preparation and Characterization of Cellulose Acetate from Pineapple (Ananas comosus) Leaves

摘要

Pineapple leaves was utilized for the fabrication of cellulose acetate. It underwent a series of process that includes alkaline treatment using sodium hydroxide aqueous solution, bleaching treatment using acetate buffer and aqueous sodium chlorite, and acetylation using acetic anhydride. The preparation of cellulose acetate was done in different acetylation times (8, 16,24 and 32 hours). The cellulose acetate samples were then characterized using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to elucidate the vibrational move, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) to investigate the thermal property of the material and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to examine the surface morphology. FTIR result showed significant decrease in absorption intensity of the O-H stretch after the acetylation which indicates the substitution of hydroxyl group by acetyl group. On the other hand, the emergence of C=0 stretch of the ester group and C-0 stretch of acetyl group can be observed which indicates the formation of cellulose acetate. TGA and DTA also shows enhanced thermal stability of cellulose acetate prepared in 16 hrs acetylation period. Increasing the reaction time to 24 hrs and 32 hrs resulted to significant decrease in thermal stability. SEM images revealed the deterioration on the physical structure of cellulose after 24 hrs acetylation.