Tapioca/sago carboxymethyl starch-based hybrid hydrogel reinforced by oil palm residue-derived carboxymethyl cellulose
摘要
Indonesia generates vast quantities of tapioca, sago starch, and oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB), creating significant opportunities for biomass valorization. Hydrogels made of tapioca or sago carboxymethyl starch (T-CMS, S-CMS) and oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC; at 15%, 20%, and 25% alkali concentrations) were prepared. The FTIR spectra and XRD pattern were analyzed for both CMS and CMC. While S-CMS yielded more (165%) and maintained more of its structural integrity and crystallinity (37–14%), T-CMS was the more viscous (311 mPa/s at 3% (w/v)). Among CMCs, the highest yield (140%) and viscosity (63 mPa/s at 3% (w/v)) was performed by CMC-25, though it suffered the most loss of crystallinity (54–41%) as the aftermath of harsh alkaline conditions. With its fibrils, CMC played the role of reinforcement filler in forming a porous, 3D-crosslinked hydrogel network with CMS-PVA. Despite lowering swelling capacity (6705–8738% to 2170–2655%) when combined with CMC due to the reduced water uptake space to swell, CMS addition contributed to a robust network with minimum structural collapse and higher oil absorption capacity (66–80%). Ultimately, these findings confirmed the promising prospects of the developed hybrid hydrogels with a myriad of applications, from biomedical, personal care and cosmetics, bioseparations, environmental, natural resource extraction, to agriculture/horticultures. Such an idea would be crucial in the grand scheme of utilizing, not only Indonesia’s but world’s, major, abundant, and extremely-underutilized materials and biomass.
Graphical Abstract