Eco-Friendly Preparation of Aerogels Based Cellulose Nanofiber Isolated from Sugar Palm Frond as Effective Palm Oil Absorbent

In this work, the isolation of cellulose nanofiber (CNF) from sugar palm frond was prepared by high shear homogenization and aerogels was obtained by freeze-drying method with addition of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The hydrophobic modification of CNF:PVA aerogel was completed with via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS). The prepared CNF:PVA aerogels were determine using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and water contact angle (WCA) for better understanding of morphology, crystallinity, functional group, thermal property and surface wettability. The CNF:PVA aerogel demonstrates effective oil absorption for palm oil of 13.97 g/g compared to canola oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil and vacuum pump oil of 6-12 g/g. These results confirmed that CNF isolated from sugar palm as aerogel prepared via high shear homogenizer is a promising ecofriendly adsorbent material for residual palm oil.