Influence of crosslinking agent on the morphology, chemical, crystallinity and thermal properties of cellulose nanofiber using steam explosion

Abstract

The characteristic of cellulose nanofiber-based (CNF) hydrogel isolated crosslinked with two different agents such as N,N′-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) and chitosan were investigated for the first time from abaca fiber (Musa textilis). The isolation of α-cellulose from abaca fiber was performed using acid hydrolysis and alkalization, subsequently the cellulose was treated with steam explosion (thermomechanochemical process) to finally obtain CNF. In addition, the CNF hydrogels were characterized to determine the chemical, thermal, structural, and morphological properties using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), tunneling electron microscope (TEM), and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA)/differential thermal analysis (DTA), analysis. FTIR analysis suggests that MBA and chitosan were successfully crosslinked with CNF. Besides, the swelling and crosslinking degree of 3582 and 85% for MBA-CNF and chitosan-CNF of 137 and 90% were achieved. We found that the morphology of chitosan-CNF was rough and coarse as compared to MBA-CNF hydorgels. Accordingly, chitosan-CNF hydrogel not only demonstrated better thermal stability at higher temperature, but also zero irritation index owing to the higher crystallinity index.

Keywords

• Abaca
• Cellulose nanofiber
• Hydrogel
• Crosslinking agent
• Steam explosion
• Thermal