Preparation and Characterization for Sorgum-Based Micro-Fibrillated Celluloses

The development of micro-fibrillated cellulose (MFC) is currently a topic of interest among researchers and industry. The aim from this research is to get MFC from sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), which contains about 45.9% of cellulose. Sorghum also has good mechanical properties that promising to be applied as the reinforcement for polymer matrix. The main challenge to get MFC is the removal of lignin and hemicellulose. Chemical treatments viz. alkalinization (NaOH 20%), bleaching (NaClO 5%) and acid hydrolysis (H2SO4 25%), were applied to sorghum. Different characterizations such as FTIR spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Simultaneous Thermal Analysis (STA) were used to evaluate this study. FTIR spectroscopy and SEM showed that the chemical treatment effectively reduced lignin and hemicellulose. XRD and FTIR characterization showed the highest crystallinity obtained through alkalinization treatment - acid hydrolysis from 7.5% up to 43.95%. The size of the smallest fibers produced was about 2-4 microns.