WOOD RESEARCH Volume 62, Number 6, 2017
Samson M. Mohomane, Linda Z. Linganiso, Thuli Buthelezi, and Tshwafo E. Motaung

Effect of extraction period on properties of sugarcane bagasse and softwood chips cellulose

This work evaluates the extraction of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) and soft wood (SW) celluloses with alkali treatment followed by bleaching process using sodium chlorite at different time. The influence of extraction time (2 hrs and 4 hrs) on the thermal, crystallinity and morphological properties was investigated. The extracted celluloses were analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The aromatic skeletal vibrations of lignin and hemicellulose confirmed the extraction of cellulose which varied extraction time. TGA analysis shows that the untreated SCB degrade earlier than their respective celluloses and the prolonged treatment affects the onset of main degradation. XRD results showed that extracted celluloses had greater crystallinity index, and was affected at prolonged time due to long range destruction of cellulose crystals. The SW revealed a complex behaviour due to the dominated lignin content as revealed from chemical composition analyses.

WOOD RESEARCH Volume 64, Number 2, 2019
Linda Z. Linganiso, Thuli Buthelezi, and Tshwafo E. Motaung

A comparative study of sugarcane bagasse and soft wood

This article investigated properties of different lignocellulosic biomasses. Both acidified and non-acidified sodium chlorite were used to treat wood chips and sugar cane bagasse. Images were part of characterizations that included X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Interestingly the results indicated that biomasses followed the similar crystallinity trend while thermal stability and functional groups on the cellulose surface seemed to differ. All the FT-IR spectra showed 8 main peaks but spectra of bagasse have an additional peak. Stretching vibrations of the O-Hand the C-H stretching group in cellulose molecules were clear for all biomasses. The treatment clearly removed most of aromatic compounds normally attributed to lignin and hemicellulose.