Synthesis of cellulose acetate from corn cobs as membrane material with variations in amount of acetic anhydride.

Corn cobs contain 38.8% cellulose which can be used as a source of cellulose from natural ingredients. This study aims to determine the effect of the ratio of cellulose : acetic anhydride on the characteristics of cellulose acetate and to determine the characteristics of the cellulose acetate membrane. The results obtained indicate that the synthesis of cellulose acetate produces types of cellulose diacetate and triacetate. Cellulose acetate that can be used as a membrane material is produced from a ratio of 1:5 with an acetyl content of 43.32% and a degree of substitution of 2.8. The product is soluble in acetone. Synthetic cellulose acetate membranes are more brittle than commercial cellulose acetate membranes. The synthetic cellulose acetate membrane produced a density value of 0.671 g/cm3 and a swelling degree of 316%. the functional group analysis by FTIR showed that both of synthetic and commercial cellulose acetate have the same peaks of functional groups [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]