Water hyacinth for superabsorbent polymer material

Superabsorbent polymers, as raw material for disposable material, will cause environmental problems. One of the organic materials that used for superabsorbent is carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). Water hyacinth, which has a relatively high cellulose content, is potentially used as non-wood cellulose resources. Study on the synthesis of CMC from water hyacinth has been reported with a maximum degree of substitution (DS) of 0.72 with isopropyl alcohol as solvent. There are opportunities to find the best solvent in order to obtain CMC from water hyacinth with higher DS. Isobutyl alcohol, which has lower polarity than isopropyl alcohol, is a potential solvent. By mixing isobutyl alcohol with other solvent which has good ability to swell the cellulose it is expected to reduce the effects of steric hindrance on the isobutyl alcohol, the polarity of the solvent mixture is lower than isopropyl alcohol and water hyacinth-based CMC with a higher DS could be obtain. Synthesis of superabsorbent material from CMC with optimum DS will results in highest absorption capacity. With a broader range of DS value of CMC, the optimum DS is expected to be more easily determined. In addition, the water hyacinth-based CMC with a higher DS are expected to be more valuable.