Ultrasonic mediated production of carboxymethyl cellulose: Optimization of conditions using response surface methodology

Ultrasonic-assisted synthesis for the production of green and sustainable hemp carboxymethyl cellulose

Hemp fiber (Cannabis sativa) is being widely used to produce carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). This study focused on synthesizing carboxymethyl cellulose from bleached hemp fiber to investigate the impact of different factors, i.e., chemical concentration and synthesis time, on its characteristics. The fiber morphology analysis revealed desirable properties, which are essential for high-quality CMC production. Optimal condition for CMC synthesis were investigated, which involved using 20 % NaOH (w/v), the shortest total synthesis time (2.30h), and using 0.9 g MCA (w/w). This resulted in a non-significantly high DS (0.80) in both nonspray-dried and spray-dried hemp carboxymethyl cellulose, representing a high CMC content around 96 %. Moreover, the use of ultrasonic assistance and spray drying techniques significantly improved the hemp carboxymethyl cellulose properties, indicating a decreased molecular weight (2.65 × 104 g/mol) and a decreased particle size (7.82 μm). Thermal analysis revealed that spray-dried hemp carboxymethyl cellulose had lower thermal stability than hemp fiber and nonspray-dried hemp carboxymethyl cellulose. FTIR and 13C NMR analyses confirmed the successful CMC synthesis. Additionally, XRD and SEM analyses demonstrated changes in the crystalline structure and hemp carboxymethyl cellulose surface morphology. This revealed advanced techniques that could enhance hemp carboxymethyl cellulose quality and properties, making it suitable for various industrial applications.

The potential of carboxylmethyl cellulose from empty fruit bunch as versatile material in food coating: A review

The rising demand for food packaging has led to a growing interest in sustainable and eco-friendly food coatings. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), being a versatile cellulose derivative produced from various lignocellulosic sources, has emerged in edible food coatings. This review evaluates the research trends on CMC production from empty fruit bunch (EFB) as a potential edible food coating material by systematic review approach. It explores sustainable pre-treatment for green cellulose and different CMC synthesis methods. The review compares CMC-based coatings to other materials, focusing on formulation processes, coating quality, safety, and commercial feasibility. The bibliometric analysis is performed to correlate food coating and CMC. As a result, the study discovered the rapid growth in research on edible food coatings made from CMC for various food industry applications. The green approach such as ozone pre-treatment appear as promising method for cellulose isolation from EFB to be used as raw material for CMC. The synthesis conditions of the treatment would affect the CMC characteristics and usage. Herein, utilizing CMC from cellulose EFB in coating formulation and on coated food shows different benefits. This review provides a road map for future research with potential to make important contributions to the food industry's long-term evolution.

Nano-enabled smart and functional materials toward human well-being and sustainable developments

Fabrication and operation on increasingly smaller dimensions have been highly integrated with the development of smart and functional materials, which are key to many technological innovations to meet economic and societal needs. Along with researchers worldwide, the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) has long realized the synergetic interplays between nanotechnology and functional materials and designated 'Smart & Functional Materials' as one of its four major research themes. Thus far, WIN researchers have utilized the properties of smart polymers, nanoparticles, and nanocomposites to develop active materials, membranes, films, adhesives, coatings, and devices with novel and improved properties and capabilities. In this review article, we aim to highlight some of the recent developments on the subject, including our own research and key research literature, in the context of the UN Sustainability development goals.

Tailoring Functionality of Nanocellulose: Current Status and Critical Challenges

Nanocellulose (NC) isolated from natural cellulose resources, which mainly includes cellulose nanofibril (CNF) and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), has garnered increased attention in recent decades due to its outstanding physical and chemical properties. Various chemical modifications have been developed with the aim of surface-modifying NC for highly sophisticated applications. This review comprehensively summarizes the chemical modifications applied to NC so far in order to introduce new functionalities to the material, such as silanization, esterification, oxidation, etherification, grafting, coating, and others. The new functionalities obtained through such surface-modification methods include hydrophobicity, conductivity, antibacterial properties, and absorbability. In addition, the incorporation of NC in some functional materials, such as films, wearable sensors, cellulose nanospheres, aerogel, hydrogels, and nanocomposites, is discussed in relation to the tailoring of the functionality of NC. It should be pointed out that some issues need to be addressed during the preparation of NC and NC-based materials, such as the low reactivity of these raw materials, the difficulties involved in their scale-up, and their high energy and water consumption. Over the past decades, some methods have been developed, such as the use of pretreatment methods, the adaptation of low-cost starting raw materials, and the use of environmentally friendly chemicals, which support the practical application of NC and NC-based materials. Overall, it is believed that as a green, sustainable, and renewable nanomaterial, NC is will be suitable for large-scale applications in the future.

Ultrasound in cellulose-based hydrogel for biomedical use: From extraction to preparation

As the most abundant natural polymer on the pl anet, cellulose has a wide range of applications in the biomedical field. Cellulose-based hydrogels further expand the applications of this class of biomaterials. However, a number of publications and technical reports are mainly about traditional preparation methods. Sonochemistry offers a simple and green route to material synthesis with the biomedical application of ultrasound. The tiny acoustic bubbles, produced by the propagating sound wave, enclose an incredible facility where matter interact among at energy as high as 13 eV to spark extraordinary chemical reactions. Ultrasonication not only improves the efficiency of cellulose extraction from raw materials, but also influences the hydrogel preparation process. The primary objective of this article is to review the literature concerning the biomedical cellulose-based hydrogel prepared via sonochemistry and application of ultrasound for hydrogel. An innovated category of recent generations of hydrogel materials prepared via ultrasound was also presented in some details.

Characterisation of microfibrils cellulose isolated from oil palm frond using high-intensity ultrasonication

This study highlighted the utilization of agricultural byproducts as an alternative fiber resource to be used as one of the materials for reinforcement biocomposite. Cellulose was extracted from oil palm frond using the alkaline treatment and successfully isolated into microfibril via the combination of carboxymethylation pre-treatment ultrasonication to get highly crystalline and good thermal stable microfibers. 4% NaOH was used during alkaline treatment and followed by oxidative bleaching with 30% H2O2. Once the extracted cellulose is chemically pre-treated with monochloroacetic acid, it was subjected to 30 minutes ultrasonication treatment to reduce its size. The detailed comparative analysis using SEM, FTIR and TGA was conducted in this work revealed some breakages of intramolecular hydrogen bonds and glycosidic bonds that occurred during the alkaline and bleaching treatment of oil palm biomass. The SEM images showed significant morphology of rigid, organized and highly ordered cellulose fibrils changed into aggregated fibril bundles of microfibrils after ultrasonication. The results from the infrared spectrums revealed that the mild alkaline treatments and oxidative bleaching were able to remove a large fraction of lignin and hemicelluloses to leave a clean cellulose sample. The isolated microfibrils cellulose exhibit good thermal stability as almost 50% of its initial mass remains at a temperature of 300 °C. These findings demonstrate that oil palm fronds can be utilized for biocomposite reinforcement applications.

Recent Developments of Carboxymethyl Cellulose

Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is one of the most promising cellulose derivatives. Due to its characteristic surface properties, mechanical strength, tunable hydrophilicity, viscous properties, availability and abundance of raw materials, low-cost synthesis process, and likewise many contrasting aspects, it is now widely used in various advanced application fields, for example, food, paper, textile, and pharmaceutical industries, biomedical engineering, wastewater treatment, energy production, and storage energy production, and storage and so on. Many research articles have been reported on CMC, depending on their sources and application fields. Thus, a comprehensive and well-organized review is in great demand that can provide an up-to-date and in-depth review on CMC. Herein, this review aims to provide compact information of the synthesis to the advanced applications of this material in various fields. Finally, this article covers the insights of future CMC research that could guide researchers working in this prominent field.

Carboxymethyl cellulose production from sugarcane bagasse with steam explosion pulping: Experimental, modeling, and optimization

The sugarcane bagasse was used for producing carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and obtaining high-molecular-mass hemicellulose as co-product. To this end, the steam explosion process was employed. It was found that the optimum operating conditions are the temperature of 187.15°C, NaOH/bagasse ratio of 39% (w/w), and retention time (RT) of 10min. Next, the obtained cellulose in the optimized condition was extracted and purified, and it was subsequently converted to CMC according to Williamson etherification technique. This paper also employed response surface methodology (RSM) to model effective factors against a degree of substitution (DS). Based on it, the optimum values of independent variables are the NaOH concentration of 28.4%, MCA mass of 1.14gram, temperature of 57.85°C, and reaction time of 4.01h which the CMC had the DS of 1.085, the yield of 181.302%, purity of 71.6%, and crystallinity of 30.1% with low viscosity. Samples comparatively studied by FT-IR, TGA and XRD.