Isolation and Characterization of Cellulose from Banana Stems using Microwave Heating

Abstract

During each day of harvest, wasted banana stems are obtained in large quantities. These stems are composed mainly of 74.37% cellulose which is a very important raw material. This study aims to isolate cellulose from banana stems using liquefaction, delignification and bleaching processes with a microwave at power variations of 450, 600 and 800 W. The results showed that the highest cellulose content of 86.43% was obtained at 800 W for 14 minutes. Meanwhile, the fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis result did not show a peak at wavenumber 1519 cm-1 which is the specific peak for lignin but showed a peak for cellulose at wavenumber 898 cm-1. Furthermore, XRD analysis of crystallinity showed a typical diffraction peak of cellulose at 22.5o with a degree of crystallinity of 56.8% while, morphological analysis with SEM showed that the sizes of the cellulose fibers produced varied, ranging from 5 to hundreds of micrometers and visible fibrillary fibers