Chemical Modification of Corn Wastes for Industrial Use

Abstract

There is need to convert agricultural wastes to a useful material because they constitute nuisance to the environment especially during season of harvest. Cellulose was extracted from corn husk by treatment with sodium hydroxide. The extracted cellulose was acetylated using acetic acid and acetic anhydride at room temperature with concentrated tetra - oxo - sulphate (vi) acid as catalyst. The acetylated and un acetylated cornhusk cellulose were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR) Perkin Elmer model. The degree of substitution (DS) were determined by titration and % yield were calculated. The highest values of DS and % yield are1.01 and 31.2 % respectively. The IR spectra for both acetylated and un acetylated corn husk are C=O stretch (1567.66 cm-1; 1641.17 cm-1), O-H stretch (3424.64 cm-1; 3350.35 cm-1) and C-O stretch (1055.39 cm-1; 1043.12 cm-1) respectively. Corn husk could be a good raw material for industries where acetylated cellulose is required. Key words: Acetylation, corn husk, acetic anhydride, yield