Effect of silane and alkaline treatment on chemical structure of different sawdust

This thesis presents a chemical modification of cellulose structure in different kind of sawdust which is rice husk, timber sawdust, rubber-wood, and cellulose powder. Cellulose was choose due to the consistent content of the material in natural fiber compared to other extractive material. Methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS) is used as coupling agent that is introduced to samples using silane treatment. The purposes of this research is to modify the chemical structure of different type of sawdust using silane coupling agent and to study the chemical and thermal properties of different type of sawdust after the silane treatment. The sample was divided to the sample that has been silane treated with mercerization and the samples that been silane treated without mercerization. The results of the research were analyzed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), x-ray diffractometer (XRD), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The FTIR results shows the most hydrophobic silane-NaOH treated rice husk. From TGA, the highest thermal stance sample was cellulose powder followed by sawdust and in XRD the biggest crystallite size sample was cellulose followed by sawdust.