Synthesis and characterization of cellulose acetate from kenaf fiber

Abstract

Kenaf or its scientific name Hibiscus cannabinus L. is heavily promoted by the Malaysian government as an alternative crop to replace tobacco. Its main constituent is cellulose. Cellulose can be converted to cellulose acetate. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of pre-treatment and acetylation time to cellulose acetate produced from kenaf fiber. Kenaf fiber has undergone three basic stages; pre-treatment, acetylation and characterization stages. The pre-treatment stage involved soaking the fiber in sodium hydroxide solution and refluxed the system with ethanol and nitric acid mixture. The pre-treated fiber was acetylated by acetic acid and acetic anhydride to produce cellulose acetate. The samples were characterized by DS titration and FTIR. For cellulose acetate sample produced from raw kenaf fiber at 24 and 48 hours acetylation times, the acetyl content obtained was 34.5% and 35.0% with the DS of 1.96 and 2.00 respectively. Meanwhile, for cellulose acetate sample produced from pre-treated kenaf fiber at 24 and 48 hours acetylation time, the acetyl content was 42.0% with the DS of 2.68 for the former and 41.7% acetyl content with the DS of 2.65 for the latter. Based on this study, it can be concluded that cellulose acetate can be produced successfully from kenaf fiber. Furthermore, the pre-treatment stage increased the acetyl content of the sample whereas different acetylation time did not show any effect on the acetyl content.