Nattakan Soykeabkaew

Mae Fah Luang University | MFU · School of Science

The low environmental impact NH4OH–KOH pulping process was used to extract pulp from banana pseudostem waste (BNW). The extracted BNW pulp was then single-stage bleached using a mixture of NaOH and H2O2 to increase brightness of the pulp. The Valley beater was further used to refine the obtained pulp (at a speed of 500 and 700 rpm) which resulted i...

In this study, the bio-nanocomposite foams of cassava starch incorporated with nanocellulose fibers (NCF) produced by bacteria were prepared by microwave processing. The effect of NCF adding content of 0.25–2.0 wt% on the morphology, structure, mechanical properties as well as water resistant properties of the starch/NCF nanocomposite foams was exa...

Due to poor barrier properties and high sensitivity to moisture, the applications of paper‐based food packaging remain limited. While gaining high barrier performance and surface durability, laminating papers with binders and other materials often lead to reduced recyclability and sustainability. Herein, we present a promising approach to improve t...

Cellulose, the most abundant polysaccharide on Earth, has a number of desirable properties, including availability, biodegradability, low cost, and low toxicity and has been used in a variety of applications. Recently, all-cellulose composite materials have been made from a wide variety of cellulose sources, including wood and agricultural wastes,...

The NH4OH-KOH pulping was a highly efficient process for extracting banana pseudostem waste (BNW) pulp. Besides, this greener pulping process allowed NH4OH recovery and KOH can be later used as fertilizer, reducing the environmental impact. It was found that the optimal BNW pulping condition was using 8.3 wt% NH4OH and 3.3 wt% KOH at a cooking temp...

A molded pulp is increasingly used as eco-packaging, but it has poor water resistance. Therefore, surface coating is common to perform on pulp or paper packaging to overcome this shortcoming. In this study, the bagasse (BG) molded pulp sheets were mono-and bilayer coated with nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), modified NFC (mNFC), and shellac (S) by...

Rice straw, an abundant agricultural waste, is shown to be a promising resource for pulp and paper packaging manufacturing. In this study, rice straw pulps or cellulose fibers were extracted using a soda-AQ process and then the rice straw pulp slurries were refined by a Valley beater. The effect of refining time (15-60 min) on the pulp fiber charac...

All-cellulose composites (ACCs) become growingly attractive materials in wide range applications due to its green profile, biocompatibility, and enable recycling. In this work, the ACCs was fabricated from cotton fabric (CF) by partial dissolution via aqueous NaOH/urea solution. The alternative ACC fabrication technique using vacuum bagging in the...

Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) was systematically tailored by ultrasonic-assisted esterification with lactic acid at different amplitudes and times, which led to modified NFC (mNFC) with different degrees of substitution (DS), between 0.21 and 0.55, as confirmed by titration, FTIR, and C¹³ NMR. A partial fragmentation and decrease in crystallinity...

Agricultural wastes have been considered as an alternative sustainable resource for pulp production. In this work, banana stem (B), pineapple leaf (P) and rice straw (R) were used as raw materials for pulp extraction. The obtained pulps were moulded into sheets and their mechanical properties were evaluated. The sheets prepared from P and R pulps s...

In this work, the feasibility of producing low-cost, recyclable and biodegradable binderless all-cellulose fibreboards was demonstrated through the successful manufacturing of self-binding composites based on recycled paper and kraft fibres. These all-cellulose composites were made by a simple and environmentally friendly solvent-free mechanical fi...

Agro-waste pineapple leaves (PA) were extracted into cellulose nanofibers by pretreated with soda pulping process and then disintegrated by microfluidizer. The resulting PA nanofibers with an average length of 1.7±0.5 μm and diameter of 15.5±3.6 nm was then used to improve properties of bagasse (BG) pulp sheets at different contents (0.5, 1, and 5...

The nanofibrillated celluloses (NFC) from different sources (i.e. bacterial cellulose (BC), pineapple leaf (PA) and banana pseudostem (BA)) were prepared using microfluidization. TEM and XRD results revealed diverse characteristics of the NFCs from different sources. Then, 0.1wt% of the prepared NFCs were integrated into the bagasse (BG) paper shee...

Underutilized agro-waste of cultivated banana pseudostem was treated by a soda pulping process and passed through a microfluidizer to prepare nanofibrillated cellulose (BA). TEM images confirmed the presence of thin fibrils and fine webs of BA with average diameter and length of 20.0±7.6 nm and 1.7±0.1 μm, respectively. Reinforcing potential of thi...

Bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers, with and without silane surface modification, were incorporated into self-reinforced poly(lactic acid) (SR-PLA) nanocomposites at 1 and 10 wt%. Disintegrated BC was combined with electrospun PLA fiber mats by film stacking and compression molding at 165 °C for 40 sec to obtain SR-PLA/BC hybrid films. The effect...

Silk has been intensively studied for tissue engineering applications owning to its advantages of biodegradability, tunable mechanical properties, versatile processing, and biocompatibility. Silk, however, has few cell signaling domains, so silk alone might not be sufficient to use as the scaffolds for tissue engineering. Here, we demonstrated the...

Today, the development of materials has to involve the consideration of environmental responsibility and sustainability. Therefore, more environmentally friendly products, which are biodegradable and derived from renewable resources, have been extensively established. However, in widespread applications, most bio-based polymers when used alone pres...

A new type of self-reinforced composite based on high-performance aramid fibers was developed to produce an “all-aramid” composite by applying a surface-dissolution method to fuse poly(p-phenyleneterephthalamide) (PPTA) fibers together. After immersion in concentrated (95%) sulphuric acid (H2SO4) for a selected period of time, partially dissolved f...

Bacterial cellulose is one of biopolymers that are an interesting alternative material to use for reinforcement in bio-based composites as green products. Here we reported the production of bacterial cellulose using Acetobacter xylinum strain TISTR 975. The results revealed that carbon source and nitrogen source could affect both the bacterial cell...

Starch-based biocomposites reinforced with jute (micro-sized fiber) and bacterial cellulose (BC) (nano-sized fiber) were prepared by film casting. Reinforcement in the composites is essentially influenced by fiber nature, and amount of loading. The optimum amount of fiber loading for jute and bacterial cellulose in each composite system are 60 wt%...

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a natural hydrogel, which is produced by Acetobacter xylinum (recently renamed Gluconacetobacter xylinum) in culture and constitutes of a three-dimensional network of ribbon-shaped bundles of cellulose microfibrils. Here, a two-step purification process is presented that significantly improves the structural, mechanical,...

Bacterial cellulose (BC) pellicles produced from Acetobacter xylinum culture were used as a reinforcing agent for biodegradable composites with poly(-caprolactone) (PCL) as a matrix. BC prepared in both particulate bacterial cellulose (PBC) and fibrous freeze-dried bacterial cellulose (FBC) states was melt-compounded with PCL. Thermal analysis was...

In this work isotropic 'self-reinforced cellulose' or 'all-cellulose' composites have been successfully prepared from cotton pads by means of a fibre surface dissolution method in lithium chloride dissolved in N,N-dimethylacetamide (LiCl/DMAc). Solvent exchange was used as activation pretreatment, involving subsequent immersion of the fibres in wat...

Bio-nanocomposites were prepared by an in-situ growth process through the direct addition of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) into the Acetobacter xylinum inoculated medium and compared with composites made by impregnation of bacterial cellulose (BC) gels with a PVA solution. Mechanical property tests showed that the presence of PVA in the BC acts as a pl...

The area of self-reinforced polymer composites is one of the fastest growing areas in engineering polymers, but until now these materials have been mainly developed on the basis of thermoplastic fibers of moderate performance. In this work, we report on a new type of self-reinforced composites based on high-performance aramid fibers to produce an "...

All-cellulose nanocomposites using bacterial cellulose (BC) as a single raw material were prepared by a surface selective dissolution method. The effect of the immersion time of BC in the solvent (lithium chloride/N,N-dimethylacetamide) during preparation on the nanocomposite properties was investigated. The structure, morphology and mechanical pro...

All-cellulose composites of Lyocell and high modulus/strength cellulose fibres were successfully prepared using a surface selective dissolution method. The effect of immersion time of the fibres in the solvent during composite’s preparation and the effect of the starting fibre’s structure on their properties were investigated. Scanning electron mic...

The effect of flax fibre reinforcement on the crystallisation behaviour of polypropylene (PP) was investigated using a hot-stage polarising optical microscope. To follow the crystallisation kinetics, crystallisation temperature and time were varied. At crystallisation temperatures between 130 and 138°C the most uniform and thickest transcrystalline...

All-cellulose composites were successfully prepared by a surface selective dissolution method of aligned ligno-cellulosic fibres using lithium chloride/N,N-dimethylacetamide as a solvent. The effect of the immersion time of the aligned fibres in the solvent during preparation was investigated. The structure and mechanical properties of the composit...

All-cellulose composites with 85–95% fibre volume fraction were successfully prepared by using solutions of 1–7% (wt/v) cellulose concentrations (dissolved ligno-cellulosic ramie fibres in LiCl/DMAc) for impregnation of aligned ramie fibres. The effect of mercerization or alkali treatment to the properties of the prepared composites was also invest...

Starch-based composite foams (SCFs) were successfully prepared by baking starch-based batters incorporating either jute or flax fibers inside a hot mold. The effect of moisture content on the mechanical properties of SCFs was investigated. Both the flexural strength and the flexural modulus of elasticity appeared to be markedly improved with additi...