Paper for Chromatographic Technique from Coconut Pulp Cellulose

Abstract

Abstract Cellulose is an important component of green plants cell wall and other organisms. Cellulose from plants is mainly used to produce paper. Because of the widespread use of paper throughout the world, it causes the use of wood in large quantities that involves cutting down trees which can lead to negative impacts on ecosystems. Many research studied to find other raw materials that could replace wood and some focused on coconut coir because it contains high amount of cellulose which is enough to use in manufacturing. Coconut pulp is also the residue from coconut. It has 59 % cellulose. This makes it possible to use coconut pulp in paper industry. Paper for chromatography uses fiber from wood as an important component too. So, the purpose of this study was to identify whether cellulose from coconut pulp can replace the original material of chromatography paper. The procedure started from extracted impurity from coconut pulp and used the remaining for making chromatographic paper. Washed coconut pulp and removed residue coconut milk. Boiled clean coconut pulp for 10 minutes and dried in oven at 60 degree Celsius. Remove the residue fat with hexane. Drained hexane and dried in oven at 60 degree Celsius. Extracted cellulose by the soda process. Cellulose yield was 50.85%. Used extracted cellulose as raw material for making chromatographic paper. Tried different amount of cellulose per area of sieve to find the suitable for making paper. The appropriate paper area per extracted cellulose weight was about 81.25 cm2/g. Then trailed the paper used as stationary phase for color separation. The appropriate condition of mobile phase in chromatographic technique (ethyl-methyl ketone, acetone and water) to separate standard colors was also studied. The appropriate ratio of mobile phase which could separate standard solutions was 7:3:3, respectively. The results show that this paper was effective in serving as a stationary phase. This paper has the potential to be developed to use as a substitute material in Bio manufacturing.