Title
Extraction and characterization of cellulose from date palm seeds (Phoenix dactylifera L.)
Authors
ABDELKADER NABILI ARBI FATTOUM RAPHAËL PASSAS and ELIMAME ELALOUI

Received August 5, 2014
Published Volume 50 Issue 9-10 October-December
Keywords date seeds, delignification, bleaching, cellulose Iβ, characterization

Abstract
Date palm seeds (DS) were subjected to mechanical grinding and then to sodium hydroxide delignification and sodium chlorite single step bleaching. The obtained holocellulose was treated with potassium hydroxide to extract cellulose. The structural features of the isolated cellulosic samples were examined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The morphological characteristics of the cellulosic preparation were investigated with a fiber morphology analyser (MorFi). The degree of polymerization (DP) was determined by the standard test method for intrinsic viscosity. It was found that cellulose extracted from date seeds (CDS) contained fines (elements with the length under 100 µm and width under 5 µm) with a degree of polymerization of 950. The extracted cellulose (CDS) was composed of 90% of amorphous phase and had a monoclinic crystal structure Iβ. FTIR spectra showed that the extracted cellulose was free from lignin and hemicelluloses.