Extraction and Physicochemical Characterization of Lignin from Cameroon’s Three Raffia Palm Species (Raffia Farinifera, Raffia Hookeri and Raffia Vinifera) and Africa Oil Palm (OPEFB)

摘要

The goal of this study was to extract lignin from palm cellulosic biomass (Raffia Farinifera, Raffia Hookeri and Raffia Vinifera) and one species of Africa Oil palm (OPEFB) by Klaxon and organosolv processes for potential use as a partial replacement for the phenol precursor in resole phenolic systems. The isolated lignin samples were purified and characterized by Fourier transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA/DTG) to compare the thermal properties, proximate analysis to compare the chemical composition, Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled to Electron Diffraction spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) to compare the morphology and the chemical composition of the samples. Analyses based on FT-IR finger print spectral region revealed no significant qualitative differences in the functional groups of the different lignin. However, chemical compositional, morphological and thermal analyses indicated that the lignins isolated by klaxon method were thermally more stable and had a greater char yield which ranged from 46-54% while the source of the lignin sample by plant species and part of the plant was observed to affect the thermal properties. Generally, the variability observed was within the range of plants of the same species. SEM / EDS analysis showed that all the sample fibers were covered with silica bodies embedded in defined craters and the silica bodies were elementally composed of silicon and oxygen.