Modification of Cellulose Isolated from Coconut Dregs Using Glycidyl Methacrylate (GMA)

The main objective of this work was to produce grafted cellulose from coconut dregs. In this work, cellulose isolated from coconut dregs was grafted with various concentrations of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). Cellulose-GMA prepared using 20% of ​​GMA produced the highest grafting percentage, where the grafting percentage reached 299.2%. The obtained grafted cellulose was characterized by FT-IR, XRD, and TGA. FT-IR spectra confirmed the formation of cellulose-GMA and XRD data showed a slight decrease in the crystallinity of cellulose after GMA addition from 6.98% to 6.02%, 5.57%, and 5.83% for cellulose-GMA prepared using 15%, 20%, and 25% of GMA, respectively. Cellulose-GMA showed higher thermal stability than cellulose, that potentially used in some applications at higher temperatures.