Solvent-free acetylation of Ensete ventricosum plant fibre to enhance oleophilicity

Acetylation, as a well-established method of fibre modification, is used to overcome the hydrophilic nature of cellulosic fibres and impart oleophilicity. Extension of this method to modify lignocellulosic fibres became the current interest of various researches. To the best of our knowledge, modification of Ensete ventricosum plant (EV) fibre using acetic anhydride was hitherto unexplored. In this work, EV fibre was effectively acetylated with acetic anhydride using N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) as a catalyst and the potential of modified EV fibre for oil sorption was further studied. Effects of temperature, time and liquid-to-material ratio (LMR) on weight percent gain (WPG) and oil absorptivity (OA) of the modified EV fibre were investigated. The changes in morphological, structural and thermal properties of modified EV fibre, in comparison to untreated fibre, were further analysed using FTIR, XRD, TGA and SEM. Solvent free acetylation at 120 °C for 3 h with LMR of 30:1 using 2% w/v NBS resulted WPG of 14.1% and OA of 19.7 g oil/g fibre. The modified material showed good reusability as a low cost biodegradable oil sorbent in oil spill clean-up.