Ozone treatment for improving the solubility of cellulose extracted from palm fiber
Agustu Sholeh Pujokaroni, Yoshito Ohtani, Hideaki Ichiura
Abstract
Abstract We investigated effects of ozone treatment on solubility of cellulose and chemical composition in cellulose extracted from palm fiber. The initial holocellulose, α‐cellulose, and lignin contents of the extracted cellulose were 88.0, 81.9, and 8.75%, respectively. The extracted cellulose was treated with ozone and NaOH solution. Ozone treatment for 5 hr at 40°C using 3% citric acid decreased the lignin content from 8.75 to 2.71%. Under these conditions, the degree of polymerization (DP) of the cellulose decreased to 29 from 160 and the carboxyl content increased to 2.05 mmol/g. When the solid phase was treated with NaOH after ozone treatment, the mass of the solid phase decreased as the ozone treatment time increased. The lowest mass was 0.43 g. Additionally, the mass of cellulose regenerated from the liquid phase increased with increasing treatment time. The highest mass of regenerated cellulose was 0.54 g. The masses of the solid phase and regenerated cellulose obtained without ozone treatment under the same conditions were 0.76 and 0.18 g, respectively. These results suggest that ozone treatment improves the solubility of cellulose by converting hydroxyl groups in the cellulose to carboxyl groups and reducing the DP.