Influence of Chemical Treatments Sequence on Morphology and Crystallinity of Sorghum Fibers

Ismojo Ismojo; Abdul Aziz Ammar; Ghiska Ramahdita; Anne Zulfia; Mochamad Chalid

doi:10.22146/ijc.27194

Influence of Chemical Treatments Sequence on Morphology and Crystallinity of Sorghum Fibers

https://doi.org/10.22146/ijc.27194

Ismojo Ismojo⁽¹⁾, Abdul Aziz Ammar⁽²⁾, Ghiska Ramahdita⁽³⁾, Anne Zulfia⁽⁴⁾, Mochamad Chalid^(5*)

(1) Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, West Java, Depok 16424, Indonesia
(2) Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, West Java, Depok 16424, Indonesia
(3) Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, West Java, Depok 16424, Indonesia
(4) Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, West Java, Depok 16424, Indonesia
(5) Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, West Java, Depok 16424, Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

Micro-fibrillated cellulose (MFC) derived from natural fibre is continuously gaining interest to produce an environmentally-friendly material, due to economic and ecological reasons. In consequence, sorghum is one of the most-cultivated crops that usually remain the waste as by product of bioethanol production. Indeed, it will be a promising area to utilize sorghum waste to produce MFC for enhancing polymer performance, especially in terms of crystallinity. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of a sequence of chemical modification was applied to sorghum fibres, i.e. alkalization using 4% sodium hydroxide followed by bleaching using 1.7% sodium chlorite plus acetic acid as a buffer. The treatment was purposed to unbundle the lignocellulose networks into microfibrils cellulose with less amorphous part and lower hydrophilic properties. Evaluation of the chemical treatments effect on internal microstructure, crystallinity index and chemical composition of sorghum fibre was measured via Field-Emission Scanning Electron microscope (FE-SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transformation Infra-Red (FTIR) Spectroscopy. The experiments show that treatments led to a removal of binding materials, such as amorphous parts hemicellulose and lignin, from the sorghum fibres, resulting MFC of sorghum fibres and enhanced crystallinity index from 41.12 % to 75.73%.

Keywords

microfibrillated cellulose (MFC); sorghum bagasse; chemical treatments; crystallinity index; FE-SEM; FTIR

Full Text:

Full Text PDF

References

[1] Cai, M., Takagi, H., Nakagaito, A.N., Li, Y., and Waterhouse, G.I.N., 2016, Effect of alkali treatment on interfacial bonding in abaca fiber-reinforced composites, Composites Part A, 90, 589–597.

[2] Bachtiar, D., Sapuan, S.M., and Hamdan, M.M., 2008, The effect of alkaline treatment on tensile properties of sugar palm fiber reinforced epoxy composites, Mater. Des., 29 (7), 1285–1290.

[3] Mylsamy, K., and Rajendran, I., 2011, Influence of alkali treatment and fibre length on mechanical properties of short Agave fibre reinforced epoxy composites, Mater. Des., 32 (8-9), 4629–4640.

[4] Yuanita, E., Pratama, J.N., Mustafa, J.H., and Chalid, M., 2015, Multistages preparation for microfibrillated celluloses based on Arenga pinnata “ijuk” fiber, Procedia Chem., 16, 608–615.

[5] Ramahdita, G., Ilmiati, S., Suryanegara, L., Khalid, A., and Chalid, M., 2017, Preparation and characterization for sorgum-based micro-fibrillated celluloses, Macromol. Symp., 371, 69–74.

[6] Yuanita, E., Hendrasetyawan, B.E., Firdaus, D.F., and Chalid, M., 2017, Improvement of polypropylene (PP)-modified bitumen through lignin addition, IOP Conf. Ser. Mater. Sci. Eng., 223 (1), 12028.

[7] Dahlberg, J., Berenji, J., Sikora, V., and Latković, D., 2011, Assessing sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench] germplasm for new traits: Food, fuels & unique uses, Maydica, 56 (1750), 85–92.

[8] Irawan, B., and Sutrisna, N., 2011, Prospek pengembangan sorgum di Jawa Barat mendukung diversifikasi pangan, FAE, 29 (2), 99–113.

[9] Kabir, M.M., Wang, H., Lau, K.T., and Cardona, F., 2012, Chemical treatments on plant-based natural fiber reinforced polymer composites: An overview, Composites Part B, 43 (7), 2883–2892.

[10] Chalid, M., and Prabowo, I., 2015, The effects of alkalization to the mechanical properties of the ijuk fiber reinforced PLA biocomposites, Int. J. Chem. Mol. Nucl. Mater. Metall. Eng., 9 (2), 342–346.

[11] Kumar, A., Negi, Y.S., Choudhary, V., and Bhardwaj, N.K., 2014, Characterization of cellulose nanocrystals produced by acid-hydrolysis from sugarcane bagasse as agro-waste, J. Mater. Phys. Chem., 2 (1), 1–8.

[12] Ismojo, Simanulang, P.H., Zulfia, A., and Chalid, M., 2017, Preparation of micro-fibrillated cellulose from sorghum fiber through alkalization and acetylation treatments, IOP Conf. Ser. Mater. Sci. Eng., 223 (1), 012057.

[13] Segal, L., Creely, J.J., Martin, A.E., and Conrad, C.M., 1959, An empirical method for estimating the degree of crystallinity of native cellulose using the X-ray diffractometer, Text. Res. J., 29 (10), 786–794.

[14] Yan, Z., Li, J., Li, S., Chang, S., Cui, T., Jiang, Y., Cong, G., Yu, M., and Zhang, L., 2015, Impact of lignin removal on the enzymatic hydrolysis of fermented sweet sorghum bagasse, Appl. Energy, 160, 641–647.

[15] Ahmed, A.S., Islam, M.S., Hassan, A., Haafiz, M.K.M., Islam, N., and Arjmandi, R., 2014, Impact of succinic anhydride on the properties of jute fiber/polypropylene biocomposites, Fibers Polym., 15 (2), 307–314.

[16] Célino, A., Gonçalves, O., Jacquemin, F., and Fréour, S., 2014, Qualitative and quantitative assessment of water sorption in natural fibers using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, Carbohydr. Polym., 101, 163–170.

[17] Kalia, S., Kaith, B.S., and Kaur, I., 2009, Pretreatments of natural fibers and their application as reinforcing material in polymer composites–A review, Polym. Eng. Sci., 49 (7), 1253–1272.

[18] Oudiani, A.E., Chaabouni, Y., Msahli, S., and Sakli, F., 2011, Crystal transition from cellulose I to cellulose II in NaOH treated Agave americana L. fiber, Carbohydr. Polym., 86 (3), 1221–1229.

[19] Kobayashi, K., Kimura, S., Togawa, E., and Wada, M., 2011, Crystal Transition from Na-cellulose IV to cellulose II monitored using synchrotron X-ray diffraction, Carbohydr. Polym., 83 (2), 483–488.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/ijc.27194