Abstract:
Being an agricultural country, Sri Lanka generates
over eight million metric tonnes of rice straw per annum as a byproduct
of the paddy cultivation. Currently rice straw is burnt or
ploughed into the field without being converted into a productive
output. One such output can be isolating the cellulose fibers from
this under-utilized waste material. The availability of rice straw
is highly seasonal. In this study, cellulose fibers were extracted
from rice straw via a three step chemical purification method
straw which yeielded 33.4 ± 0.52 percent. The structure, chemical
composition, morphology and thermal properties of rice straw,
cellulose and rice straw ash were investigated using laser
diffracted particle size analyzer, Fourier transform infrared
(FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).
FTIR results and SEM images show the removal of lignin and
hemicellulose and silica at each step of the isolation process. XRD
results exhibit the increase in crystallinity of the fibers. This
study reveals that thermal and structural properties have
increased after the chemical isolation and purification treatment.
