Physicochemical properties and characteristics of microcrystalline cellulose derived from the cellulose of oil palm empty fruit bunch

摘要

Cellulose from oil palm empty fruit bunch was hydrolyzed with different concentration of hydrochloric acid (HC1) viz. 2; 2.5; 3; 3.5 N to prepare microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). The temperature of hydrolysis process was at 75 °C. The physicochemical properties such as organoleptic characteristic, water soluble substance, and loss on drying were conducted during this study. Infrared, x-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) image were also performed to investigate the effect of hydrolysis on the molecular structure, crystal structure and morphology of the MCC, respectively. The results have showed, in term of the physicochemical properties, for all concentrations of HC1 the MCC was obtained. The FTIR results showed the -OH functional group tended to reduced as alpha cellulose has changed to MCC. The x-ray diffraction pattern revealed that the crystal structure was traced on MCC where the highest was observed at hydrolysis process of 2.5N HCl. The image from SEM displayed an individualized and fibrous MCC on the treatment of 2.5N HCl.