Sintesis dan karakterisasi metil selulosa dari batang pisang (musa balbisiana colla)

Banana (Musa balbisiana Colla) is one of the fruits with high economic value. Previously, it is only its fruit and leaves are used, while the banana stem is less. Banana stem is a waste which can be used as a source of fiber that has the economic value. One of its benefits is it can be synthesized to be methylcellulose which can be used as food emulsifier. This research was started from incubating microbial cellulose synthesis of banana stem used Acetobacter xylinum starter for 9 days. The obtained Nata was purified and produced microbial cellulose. Then it was synthesized to be methylcellulose. The methylcellulose was synthesized by swelling, then added solvent and methylene chloride for the methylation process. Cellulose and methylcellulose were analyzed by FTIR and tested on methyl cellulose including color, melting point and solubility so it can be estimated DS value. FTIR characterization result on microbial cellulose was obtained -OH group at wave number 3388.93 cm-1 and -CH group at wave number 2931.80 cm-1. Characterization of methyl cellulose by FTIR can be known by appearance the peak of group absorption area of -CH was getting sharper. MS-water and MS-acetone has a -CH group at wavelengths 2918.30 cm-1 and 2900.94 cm-1. Methyl cellulose which produced from synthesis result of banana stem is insoluble in cold water solvents (0-15 ° C), 4% NaOH and glacial acetic acid. The DS values of MS-acetone 0.912 and MS-water 0.834 so acetone solvent is better for optimizing DS values in methyl cellulose