Extraction and Isolation of Cellulose Nanofibers from Carpet Wastes Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Approach.

Halimatuddahliana Nasution,Esam Bashir Yahya,Azmi Mohamed,C K Abdullah,A B Suriani,Tata Alfatah,Marwan Abdulhakim Shaah,H P S Abdul Khalil

doi:10.3390/polym14020326

Halimatuddahliana Nasution, Esam Bashir Yahya + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14020326

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Abstract

Cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) are the most advanced bio-nanomaterial utilized in various applications due to their unique physical and structural properties, renewability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. It has been isolated from diverse sources including plants as well as textile wastes using different isolation techniques, such as acid hydrolysis, high-intensity ultrasonication, and steam explosion process. Here, we planned to extract and isolate CNFs from carpet wastes using a supercritical carbon dioxide (Sc.CO2) treatment approach. The mechanism of defibrillation and defragmentation caused by Sc.CO2 treatment was also explained. The morphological analysis of bleached fibers showed that Sc.CO2 treatment induced several longitudinal fractions along with each fiber due to the supercritical condition of temperature and pressure. Such conditions removed th fiber’s impurities and produced more fragile fibers compared to untreated samples. The particle size analysis and Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEM) confirm the effect of Sc.CO2 treatment. The average fiber length and diameter of Sc.CO2 treated CNFs were 53.72 and 7.14 nm, respectively. In comparison, untreated samples had longer fiber length and diameter (302.87 and 97.93 nm). The Sc.CO2-treated CNFs also had significantly higher thermal stability by more than 27% and zeta potential value of −38.9± 5.1 mV, compared to untreated CNFs (−33.1 ± 3.0 mV). The vibrational band frequency and chemical composition analysis data confirm the presence of cellulose function groups without any contamination with lignin and hemicellulose. The Sc.CO2 treatment method is a green approach for enhancing the isolation yield of CNFs from carpet wastes and produce better quality nanocellulose for advanced applications.

Highlights

The production of nanocellulose has attracted tremendous attention in the past few years due to its suitability for a wide range of applications in medical and other fields [1,2]
Natural fiber carpets and mats wastes are one of textile wastes that mostly end up in landfill due to the high costs of their recyclability compared to their original price [11,12]
Natural fiber carpets are mainly composed of natural fibers; in Malaysia, carpets and mats are highly produced from Hibiscus cannabinus L. natural fibers, which contain high cellulose content and can be an excellent source of nanocellulose instead of ending up in landfill [13]

Summary

Introduction

The production of nanocellulose has attracted tremendous attention in the past few years due to its suitability for a wide range of applications in medical and other fields [1,2]. The past few years witnessed utilization of different industrial and agricultural wastes including textile wastes as a source of predominant compounds they contain such as nanocellulose and recyclable nylon [10]. Natural fiber carpets and mats wastes are one of textile wastes that mostly end up in landfill due to the high costs of their recyclability compared to their original price [11,12]. Natural fiber carpets are mainly composed of natural fibers; in Malaysia, carpets and mats are highly produced from Hibiscus cannabinus L. natural fibers, which contain high cellulose content and can be an excellent source of nanocellulose instead of ending up in landfill [13]

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