Description:
Cellulose is the greatest abundant and renewable biopolymer resources in world, it has been widely used in many
industrial applications because of its favorable characteristics. Eleocharis dulcis is an aquatics plant belonging to the
Cyperaceae family, mainly abundant in swampy area in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. In this study, -cellulose were
isolated from E. dulcis as a new renewable industrial resources. The sample was dewaxed using ethanol-toluene, then the
free extractive sample was bleached using NaClO2 to produce holocellulose. The influence of type of alkali (NaOH and
KOH) and concentration (15%; 17.5% and 20%) on the properties of -cellulose was investigated. The Total Crystallinity
Index (CrI), Lateral Order Index (LOI), Hydrogen Bond Intensity (HBI) and whiteness of -cellulose were analysis using
FTIR and CIELab color system, respectively.