Novel hydrogel from functionalized glycerol and microfibrillated cellulose: towards an environmentally-friendly design

Glycerol is one of the major residues obtained during biodiesel transesterification. Microfibrillated cellulose was obtained from the empty bunches of palm oil, which is a residue of biomass extracted oil. Therefore, the objective of this work is to apply two important residues of oil chemistry industry, glycerol and lignocellulose biomass, in addition to acrylic acid to synthesize a polymer matrix in form of hydrogel for water absorption applications. To produce the polymer matrix, glycerol was modified with acrylic acid to obtain n-acylglycerol macromonomer with different reactive groups. The solution polymerizations were carried out between n-acylglycerol macromonomer, acrylic acid and bis-acrylamide in presence of microfibrillated cellulose (obtained from empty bunches of palm oil) to obtain hydrogels. The final material presented a high capacity of swelling water. The best material considering the swelling water contained 25 wt% of acrylic acid and 5 wt% of cellulose microfiber and absorbed 1400% of its own weight when produced in the optimized condition. [GRAPHICS] .