In this research a chemi-mechanical approach was used to isolate cellulosic nanofibers from fresh raw kenaf bast bundles. The resultant nanofibers were characterized for functional groups using the Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), for crystallinity using X-ray diffraction (XRD), and for morphology analysis using the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Moreover thermal analysis including thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetery (DSC) were done to identify thermal behavior and stability of isolated fibers. FTIR spectroscopy demonstrated that the content of lignin and hemicellulose were almost removed during alkali and bleaching treatments while the fibers crystallinity increased as the isolation process scaled down and bleached nanofibers had higher crystallinity in comparison to unbleached nanofibers. According to measurements of electron microscopy micrographs there were no significant differences between average diameter of bleached and unbleached nanofibers; however, the results of thermal analysis showed that bleached-nanofibers had higher thermal stability.

Isolation and characterization of cellulosic nanofiber from kenaf bast

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.