MCC has been successfully isolated from OPEFB-pulp, which is
one of the most abundant sources of biomass planted in Malaysia.
The results obtained from FT-IR analysis confirmed that chemical
structure of the cellulosic fragments is not influenced by the
acid hydrolysis. SEM shows that the OPEFB-MCC has a rough and
compact structure, similar to C-MCC, although it exhibits much
smaller fragments. AFM analysis revealed that the OPEFB-MCC
obtained showed regular spherical particles. The crystallinity analysis
shows that OPEFB-MCC has a high crystallinity index providing
evidence that acid hydrolysis does not alter the crystal structure
from the cellulose I allomorph of OPEFB-pulp. TGA analysis indicated
that OPEFB-MCC produced from OPEFB-pulp has a good
thermal stability. Based on these results it can be concluded that
the production of OPEFB-MCC from OPEFB-pulp by acid hydrolysis
is adequate for obtaining samples with high crystallinity. The
prepared OPEFB-MCC has the potential to be a good reinforcing
materialfor polymeric materials, where large surface area and good
thermal properties are required.