Effects of processing parameters on the yield of cellulose isolated from sawdust

Over past the decades there has been a growing interest in the isolation of cellulose due to its high demand in paper industries, food industries, pharmaceutical and textiles. In this project, cellulose from sawdust will be isolated and characterized using FTIR and SEM. The cellulose from sawdust was isolated through chemical pretreatment and under different conditions. The effect of processing parameter such as concentrations of acid used in chemical pretreatment, treatment time and temperature on the yield of cellulose was studied. Treatment of sample with 2 wt % of acidified sodium chlorite (NaCI02) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for 4 hours at 70 °C is the optimum condition to produce highest yield of cellulose which is 45.3 ± 0. l4 %. Furthermore, the pure cellulose isolated from sawdust was further synthesized into nanoparticles with different concentration of cellulose solution. The increase in cellulose solution from 0.0 1 w/v % to 0.10 w/v % increases the average diameter of nanoparticles formed, where 0.0 I w/v % formed nanoparticles diameter of 122 ± 24 nm and 0.10 w/v % formed nanoparticles diameter of 379 ± 75 nm