Preliminary study on the fabrication of cellulose nanocomposite film from oil palm empty fruit bunches partially solved into licl/dmac with the variation of dissolution time

Abstract

This study aims to fabricate cellulose nanocomposite film from oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) and to compare the difference in resulted films, which were treated with various dissolution time. The method applied to generate cellulose fiber was steam explosion method; also, the alkali treatment was employed. In order to form cellulose nanocomposite film from cellulose nanofibers, LiCl/DMAc was used as the solvent with the dissolution time varied, namely 30 minutes and 60 minutes. The chemical structure was investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, whereas the surface morphology was done using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The FT-IR results show all appropriate vibration peaks to confirm that the cellulose nanofibers and nanocomposite film were successfully produced. From the photographs of the cellulose nanocomposite film as well as SEM photographs, it can be concluded that 60 minutes dissolution time gives smoother surface and more transparent film than those of 30 minutes.