Extraction, physico-chemicaland morphological analysis of bioproducts from date palm by-products in southern Algeria, and applications.

Abstract

The present study aims to low coast valorization of date palm by-products by extraction of cellulose fiber and its nano-particles from date palm empty fruit bunchs of three locale cultivars (Degletnour, DeglaBaidha and Tantebouchet) following chemical treatment using Sodium hydroxide and Hydrogen peroxide. The extraction conditions were first optimized in order to improve the purification and have less lignin content in the extracted cellulose and the fiber was characterized before and after treatment, to unsure the cellulose purity. Actually,the chemical composition analysis of the fibers before extraction showed that there was variation in the percentage of mean constituent content between the three cultivars; where DeglaBaidah cultivar presents the highest cellulose content (49%) compared to the others, which is reflected byits density (1.41). However, the chemical treatment had remarkably enhanced the cellulose content, and the density increases for the three cultivars due to the elimination of the no-cellulosic compounds from the fibers surface that are related to hemicellulose and lignin, the obtained results were approved by FTIR and SEM analysis.Furthermore, DRX analysis show that the crystalline propriety increases after each chemical treatment; in general the crystallinityindex is relatively close for all the cultivars but the highest percentage is detected for Tantebouchet cultivars with 70%. The investigation of the thermal stability by the thermogravimetric analysis revealed variable degradation temperature for the cultivars, where Degletnour cellulose fiber is considered thermal stable until 351 °C indicating the high thermal stability.On the light of these results, cellulose nano-fibers were prepared from the extracted cellulose, and a chemically modified cellulose by citric acid was prepared, the adsorption capacity of the nano-fiber and the resulted product was tested using methylene bleu as an example of dyes, the results show that cellulose-based adsorbent has a high adsorption capacity.