ISOLATION OF CELLULOSE NANOFIBRES FROM ARECA SPATHE AND ITS CHARACTERIZATION

Cellulose nanofibers have gained much interest because of its high mechanical properties, tunable surface groups, excellent strength/weight ratio, biodegradability and low cost. The present work deals with the isolation of cellulose nanofibres from Areca spathe which is an agricultural waste. Cellulose nanofibres can be conveniently extracted from Areca spathe by sulphuric acid hydrolysis. The steps involved chemomechanical methods such as grinding, homogenization, alkali treatment, bleaching and sulphuric acid hydrolysis. After alkali treatment and bleaching, the α-cellulose content was found to increase tremendously. The removal of hemicellulose and lignin was confirmed by the FTIR studies. The increase in crystallinity was confirmed by the XRD analysis. Surface morphological studies using SEM revealed that the extracted fibres had a diameter of 55 – 70 nm. Thermogravimetric analysis results showed that thermal stability improved significantly for bleached fibres compared to alkalitreated, nanofibres and raw fibres.