Cellulose acetate from oil palm empty fruit bunches waste as biodegradable microbeads for making scrubs

Abstract

The scrubs consist of cream and microbeads particles that form as a coarse particle to exfoliating skin. However, the existence of microbeads is a new problem in the environment. Its non-biodegradable and hydrophobic properties make polyethylene microbeads take a long time to decompose naturally and easily absorb toxic substances that will be harmful to aquatic habitats to pollute the food chain potentially. To overcome this problem, microbeads biodegradable has found from cellulose Palm Oil Empty Fruit Bunches as industrial waste that has not been utilized optimally. Cellulose from oil palm empty fruit bunches was extracted through a process of delignification and bleaching. The cellulose then synthesized by activation, acetylation, and hydrolysis. The yield of oil palm empty fruit bunches cellulose acetate was 85.16 %. The initial test was carried out on cellulose acetate in the form of physical characteristics test, namely water and oil absorption test, advanced characteristic test, and functional group analysis using FTIR UV-vis and morphology analysis using SEM-EDX. Water absorption from cellulose and cellulose acetate are 82.43 % and 24.83 %, while oil absorption from cellulose and cellulose acetate are 10.34 % and 8.37 %. From the FTIR analysis result shows cellulose acetate has C=O functional group at wavelength 1737.97 cm−1. Analysis SEM-EDS shows the morphology of cellulose acetate ware more homogeneous and distribution of holes evenly than cellulose. The chemical components of OPEFB cellulose acetate exhibit organic elements of carbon (C) and oxygen (O). In the next process, cellulose acetate was mixed with a cream scrub formulation. Scrub storage has accelerated for 0 and 1 month, periodically with pH test, and stability test (mold and yeast growth) for the scrub. The best results with a lower pH and lower mold and yeast growth obtained in scrubs with a concentration of 5 % cellulose acetate.