Characterization of Cellulose Nanofiber (CNF) from Steam-exploded Palm Oil Kernel Fibers Followed by Supermasscolloider

Abstract The Palm oil industry produced several lignocellulosic biomass wastes that could be utilized as a renewable and sustainable resource for biomaterial. Recently, cellulose nanofiber (CNF) has become a biopolymer with various advantages, which has attracted the interest of researchers in its development. This study focused on the development and characterized the CNF from palm oil kernel fibers via steam explosion pretreatment (35 ATM, 243 °C, 5 minutes resident time, severity factor/R 0 4.91) followed by water-acetone extraction and delignification process. The nanosizing process used a supermasscolloider, resulting in various CNF diameters with 53.9-134 nm. The Molecular weight was 43211 Da with 266 degrees of polymerization (DPw) and 1.52 dL/g intrinsic viscosity (η). The CNF kernel fibers resulted in satisfying mechanical properties, where the tensile strength was 75.23 MPa with 119.22 GPa Young’s modulus and 2.95 elongations at break. The thermal characterization resulted in weight loss at 5 % (T d5 ) 121.22, 285.74, and 319 °C for T d10 and T d30 , respectively, with CNF starting to lose its weight (T s ) at 117.54 °C. The glass transition (T g ) of the CNF kernel fibers was 80.53 °C. Other than that, the fingerprinting via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy detected the hydroxyl group (OH), which could be a carrier agent for various compound incorporation and surface modification.