Thermally Stable Rice Husk Microcrystalline Cellulose as Adsorbent in PTLC Plates

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was prepared from rice husk by subjecting it to alkaline pretreatment, delignification, bleaching and hydrolytic operations. MCC was also prepared from cotton wool and used as a reference because of its high cellulose content to estimate a relative yield and quality of the MCC produced from rice husk. The characteristic morphological feature was established by scanning electron micrograph (SEM); the functional group was confirmed by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic method and the thermal stability was determined from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and this characterized MCC of rice husk was applied as a stationary phase in Preparative Thin Layer Chromatography (PTLC).