Development of hemicellulose films from pineapple peel by microwave-assisted extraction / Nur Aza Atiqah Mad Zahir

Pineapple is a commercial crop that generates a vast amount of waste such as pineapple peel (PP) during processing and represents another abundant raw material in Malaysia. PP hemicellulose extracted by microwave-assisted extraction could be interest in potential applications in various fields of materials science. The aim of this study is to prepare hemicellulose film from pineapple peel. The MAE conditions (temperature, time and sodium hydroxide, NaOH concentration) were optimised to obtain the highest yield of PP hemicellulose using response surface methodology (RSM). In order to optimise the extraction conditions of microwave-assisted water extraction (MAWE) and microwave-assisted alkali extraction (MAAE) for maximum hemicellulose yield, RSM with Central Composite Design was employed. The optimised samples were characterised for lignin content, and also by using fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. Hemicellulose films with different hemicellulose concentration such as 0 %, 2 %, 4 %, and 6 % (w/v) were developed.