New-fangled sources of cellulose extraction: comparative study of the effectiveness of Cissus latifolia and Ficus benghalensis cellulose as a filler

Abstract

Recycled polymers and biopolymers are receiving a great deal of attention these days. If these two can be combined, it will lead to an environment-friendly green material with a great deal of applications. Here the present work is about incorporating bio-based fillers in a recycled polyurethane matrix. Two unusual and extremely novel sources of cellulose have been proposed. The celluloses obtained from Cissus latifolia and Ficus benghalensis were selected as sources. These sources have not been utilized and reported elsewhere to date. The cellulose modified samples of recycled polyurethane were analyzed using FTIR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) to have a preliminary idea about the combination. We found that these were successful as fillers in the matrix. The percentage of crystallinity was decreased in both the composites, which indicates the miscibility. Comparing the two sources, Cissus latifolia based cellulose was more effective in producing interesting morphologies and they had a percentage crystallinity of 75%, which was very high compared to all the reported works.