Acetylation of Wood Flour from Four Wood Species Grown in Nigeria Using Vinegar and Acetic Anhydride

Abstract

Effect of acetylation on pre-treated wood flour of different wood species, Boabab (Adansonia Digitata), Mahoganny (Daniella Oliveri), African locust bean (Parkia Biglobosa) and Beech wood (Gmelina Arborea), has been investigated. Acetylation was carried out in batches using acetic anhydride and then with commercial vinegar in the presence of varying amount of CaCl 2 as catalyst and at temperature of 120 °C for 3 h under reflux. The success of acetylation was determined based on Weight Percent Gains. FT-IR spectroscopy, a veritable tool was used for the analysis of both treated and untreated samples to further investigate the success of acetylation. The results showed the presence of important band such as carbonyl absorptions at 1743, 1744, 1746, 1731, 1718 and 1696 cm -1 as appeared separately in the spectra of acetylated samples, confirming esterification occurred. The purpose of this work was to investigate the applicability of vinegar for acetylation of lignocellulosic fibers. Acetic anhydride is a common acetylation reagent, but its utilization is restrictly prohibited in some countries. Using commercial vinegar as an alternative reagent was quite novel and interesting. Blends/composites were prepared by solution casting and their kinetics investigated in distilled water. The results indicated they could be used in outdoor/packaging applications.

Optimizing the Cellulose Content of Shea Butter Bark Wood Fibre through Alkali Pretreatment for Composite Application

“…Therefore, the need for pretreatment of SBBWF is the remedy for reduction of ineffective components. When SBBWF is not pretreated before employing in any industrial processes; it would lead to more water sorption, low adhesion of the fiber when combining with another material such polymer matrix for composite making and poor capability to inculcate stress to another substrate during processing [23]. Furthermore, many methods have been applied for treating the fiber for effectual bonding.…”

Optimisation of acetylation parameters for reduced moisture absorption of bamboo fibre using Taguchi experimental design and genetic algorithm optimisation tools

“…In a research on acetylation of rice straw, Kai et al [7], mixed 80g of acetic acid and 20g of rice straw at 40 0 C for 3 hours after which 60g of acetic anhydride and 1.8g of sulphuric acid were added to the mixture and allowed to react for 2hours at 50 0 C. It is noteworthy that the aforementioned researchers applied high temperature and catalyst in their acetylation process. Other researchers have also applied similar process in acetylation [7,9,10]. One of the drawbacks of application of catalyst and high temperature during acetylation is the non-commercial viability of the process because of high cost of chemicals and energy requirement.…”

Effect of Particle Size and Filler Content on Mechanical Properties of Avocado Wood Flour-Low Density Polyethylene Composite

“…In this modern time, there is an increase in application of additive made from wood source as filler in polymer industry for composite production (Supri and Lim, 2009;Obasi, 2012;Dungani et al, 2016;Obasi, 2015;; Government et al, 2019(b-e); Government et al, 2018(a-b); Government et al, 2021(a-b)). The simple reason is due to the advantages of low cost, light weight, readily availability, high specific properties and easy to process (Blezki and Gassan, 1999;Ochi, 2008;Kannappan and Dhuri, 2012;Atuanya et al, 2014;Obasi, 2015;; Government et al, 2019(b-e); Yakubu et al, 2013). Therefore, the need to hunt more filler in composite application is paramount for new engineering materials (Bawon et al, 2019;Yakubu et al, 2013;Orji and McDonald, 2020;Rajak et al, 2019;Sood and Dwivedi, 2018).…”

“…The simple reason is due to the advantages of low cost, light weight, readily availability, high specific properties and easy to process (Blezki and Gassan, 1999;Ochi, 2008;Kannappan and Dhuri, 2012;Atuanya et al, 2014;Obasi, 2015;; Government et al, 2019(b-e); Yakubu et al, 2013). Therefore, the need to hunt more filler in composite application is paramount for new engineering materials (Bawon et al, 2019;Yakubu et al, 2013;Orji and McDonald, 2020;Rajak et al, 2019;Sood and Dwivedi, 2018). Plant filler made from avocado wood flour has given less attention with more emphasis on its edible content.…”