An eco-friendly preparation of cellulose nano crystals from oil palm empty fruit bunches

Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNCs) have attracted a lot of attention as one of the promising green nanomaterials because of their interesting properties such as low density, high mechanical properties, high surface area, high biocompatibility and low toxicity. However, sulphuric acids is generally used in conventional method to prepare CNCs which is highly corrosive and harmful to environment. Replacing sulphuric acid with Ammonium Persulfate (APS), which possess lower toxicity, are desirable from environment point of view. In this research, preparation of CNCs from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches (OPEFB) as alternative raw materials and using APS is reported. Three kinds of method were carried out before applying APS solution: (i) without pre-treatment, (ii) with alkali pre-treatment and (iii) with alkali-chloride pre-treatment. White-colored sample with crystallinity reaching 78% (XRD result) and particle size ranging between 31-113 nm (DLS result) was obtained. Those results implied that there were potential existence of CNCs in the samples.