Preparation of Cellulose Hydrogel from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Fibers Cellulose

摘要

Cellulose hydrogel was produced from oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibers cellulose pretreated by sulphuric acid. The pretreated EFB cellulose was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The EFB cellulose was dissolved in a 4.6/15 LiOH/urea and 7/12 NaOH/urea aqueous solution and followed by crosslinking sing 5% epichlorohydrin (ECH) to produce hydrogel. The solubility of the cellulose was strongly dependent on the viscosity average molecular weight (M_η) of the EFB cellulose, in which as high as 96.3% of solubility was achieved for the EFB cellulose pretreated by acid for 6 hours. The transparency and physical structure of the produced cellulose hydrogels were evaluated using a Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) and a Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscopy (VPSEM).