Journal of Research in Applied Chemistry

Authors:- Sanjana Keshav, Archana Grover

Abstract:- We concentrated on leftover biomass, which is particularly plentiful in Slovenia and comes from corn and wheat harvesting. To begin, we chemically identified common biomass, such as maize stover, corn stems and peeled cobs, and wheat straw. We determined the cellulose, lignin, hemicellulose, extractives, and ash contents. Due to the rather high cellulose content in typical samples, which ranged between 35% and 44%, the materials were further delignified using an alkaline technique with NaOH as a reagent. Mechanical, morphological, and other aspects of isolated cellulose fibres were investigated. Simultaneously, we refined the delignification procedure to determine how delignification circumstances impact the qualities of isolated cellulose fibres. Furthermore, we investigated the conversion of isolated cellulose fibres into carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) by Williamson ether synthesis under a variety of solvents and experimental circumstances. CMC was synthesised using cellulose fibres extracted from maize stover, corn stems and peeled cobs, and wheat straw. We also investigated prospective variations in CMC production utilising native (cellulose I) and regenerated (cellulose II) cellulose as starting materials.

Keywords:- Agricultural residues, delignification process, cellulose, Williamson ether synthesis, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC).