Investigation on Chemical Isolation and Characterization of Cellulose from Delonix regia Fruit Fibers

Abstract

Lignocellulosic fibers have gained popularity among the research fraternity in recent years due to its abundance in nature, biodegradability, high specific strength, etc. Cellulose can be extracted from biomasses by various chemical and mechanical methods. In this paper, Delonix regia fruit fibers are presented as a new source of cellulose, and chemical methods are used for extraction of cellulose from it. Chemically treated and untreated fibers were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to understand the effect of chemical treatment and properties of the cellulose yield. The results obtained demonstrated that a high yield of cellulose is obtained by chemical extraction methods followed and validated the suitability of Delonix regia fruit fibers for various applications including biocomposites and bionanocomposites.