THERMAL AND INFRARED ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT POLYOL MOLECULAR WEIGHT FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH FIBRE (EFBF)

Abstract

Preparation of low cost polyol from abundant and renewable biomass resources has long been an interesting subject in the polyurethane industry. The oil palm empty fruit bunch fiber (EFBF) is one of the important lignocellulosic waste. EFBFs are a major by product of the oil palm industry. Recently the utilization of EFBF has become appealing because of it’s environmental friendly, cheap, easy to get and cost of petroleum was increased. The first step involved chemically modified EFBF using isopropanol and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to produce hydroxypropylated-EFBF (HP-EFBF). This reaction take 20 minutes and after that cooling it in room temperature for one hour. Then, propylene and polyethylene glycol (PEG) in a different molecular weight (6000, 8000 and 10,000) was added into the mixture. The reaction was performed 80ºC for two hours. The next stage is to produce polyol whereas HP-EFBF was reacted with phenol and distilled water at temperature 110-120ºC for one hour. Later, formaldehyde was added into the mixture and it was reacted at temperature 80-90ºC for one hour and fifthteen minutes. The techniques used for characterizations were infrared analysis (FTIR) and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA). TGA result was analyzed to monitor the composition and structural dependence on thermal degradation of natural cellulose fiber and to calculate the kinetic activation energy, Ea of polyol. Meanwhile, FTIR was analyzed to measure the change of surface compositions of fibres after treatment. TGA analysis showed that activation energy of polyol slightly increasing with molecular weight of polyol. Molecular weight of polyol is high so Ea also high. If activation energy is higher, the thermal stability for that sample is more stable. Based on infrared analysis, after chemical reaction, the composition of the sample slightly different with untreated EFBF.