Superabsorbent hydrogel from oil palm empty fruit bunch cellulose and sodium carboxymethylcellulose

Salleh KM 1 , Zakaria S 2 , Sajab MS 3 , Gan S 4 , Kaco H 1

Affiliations 

  • 1 Bioresource and Biorefinery Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Bioresource and Biorefinery Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: szakaria@ukm.edu.my
  • 3 Bioresource and Biorefinery Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia; Research Centre for Sustainable Process Technology (CESPRO), Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Bioresource and Biorefinery Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia; Publication Unit, Information Technology and Corporate Services Division, Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: gan@mpob.gov.my
Int J Biol Macromol, 2019 Jun 15;131:50-59.
PMID: 30844455 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.03.028

Abstract

A green regenerated superabsorbent hydrogel was fabricated with mixtures of dissolved oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) cellulose and sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC) in NaOH/urea system. The formation of hydrogel was aided with epichlorohydrin (ECH) as a crosslinker. The resultant regenerated hydrogel was able to swell >80,000% depending on the NaCMC concentrations. The hydrogel absorbed water rapidly upon exposure to water up to 48 h and gradually declined after 72 h. The crosslinked of covalent bond of COC between dissolved EFB cellulose (EFBC) with NaCMC was confirmed with Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FT-IR) spectroscopy. Crystallinity and thermal stability of the hydrogel samples were depended on the concentrations of NaCMC, crosslinking, and swelling process. The strength and stability of crosslinked network was studied by examining the gel fraction of hydrogel. This study explored the swelling ability and probable influenced factors towards physical and chemical properties of hydrogel.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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