Fabrication of advanced aerogels from pineapple leaf fiber for oil spill cleaning, heat and sound insulation

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY DO NGUYEN HOANG NGA FABRICATION OF ADVANCED AEROGELS FROM PINEAPPLE LEAF FIBERS FOR OIL-SPILL CLEANING, HEAT AND SOUND INSULATION Major: Chemical Engineering Code: 8520301 MASTER THESIS Ho Chi Minh City, September 2020 This research was conducted at: Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and National University of Singapore Supervisor 1: Assoc Prof Phung Kim Le Supervisor 2: Dr Son Truong Nguyen Reviewer 1: Assoc Prof Quyen Ngoc Tran Reviewer 2: Dr Viet Tan Tran The master thesis was defended at Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, September 07th, 2020 Members of examining committee including: Assoc Prof Long Quang Nguyen Assoc Prof Quyen Ngoc Tran Dr Viet Tan Tran Dr Phuong Thi Hong Pham Dr Lien Thi Le Nguyen Confirmation of the Examination Chairman and the Head of Faculty after the thesis has been corrected (if any) Examination Chairman Dean of Faculty Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Independence – Freedom – Happiness MASTER THESIS TASK DESCRIPTION Student full name: DO NGUYEN HOANG NGA Student ID: 1870411 Date of birth: 08/11/1996 Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh City Major: Chemical Engineering Code: 8520301 I THESIS TITLE: FABRICATION OF ADVANCED AEROGELS FROM PINEAPPLE LEAF FIBERS FOR OIL-SPILL CLEANING, HEAT AND SOUND INSULATION TASKS AND CONTENT: Synthesis of cellulose aerogels from pineapple leaf fibers Investigation of physical and chemical properties of synthesized cellulose aerogels Evaluation of potential applications of cellulose aerogels in oil-spill treatment and insulation II DATE OF ASSIGNMENT: 10/02/2020 III DATE OF COMPLETION: 30/07/2020 IV SUPERVISORS: Assoc Prof Phung Kim Le Dr Son Truong Nguyen Ho Chi Minh City, ……/……/2020 SUPERVISORS HEAD OF DEPARTMENT DEAN OF FACULTY ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to everybody who has directly or indirectly helped me in completing my dissertation work Although it is just my name on the cover, many people have contributed to the research in their own particular way and for that, I want to give them special thank First and foremost, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisors, Assoc Prof Phung Kim Le (HCMUT), Assoc Prof Hai Minh Duong (NUS), and Dr Son Truong Nguyen (HCMUT), for their invaluable guidance and constant support throughout my time as their master student I have been extremely lucky to have those supervisors who cared so much about my work, and who responded to my questions, and queries so promptly I would like to convey my appreciation to my fellow group members, Mr Duyen Khac Le, Mr Quoc Ba Thai, Ms Thao Phuong Luu, and technical staffs in Materials Laboratory National University of Singapore for their devoted help and technical assistance I also wish to thank my family and my beloved for their understanding, encouragement, and support Without their help, it would not have been possible to complete my graduate work Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support of time and facilities from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), VNU-HCM for this study ABSTRACT Over twenty million tons of pineapples have been produced annually worldwide After harvesting the fruits, the pineapple waste is mostly discarded to be decomposed or burnt In this thesis, pineapple fibers (PF) from the pineapple leaf waste have been recycled into novel eco-friendly and high-value engineering aerogels for the first time by using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a cross-linker and a costeffective freeze-drying process The developed PF aerogels have highly porous structures with porosity of 96.98 – 98.85%, extremely low density of 0.013 – 0.033 g/cm 3, and super-hydrophobicity with water contact angle of approximately 140° after being modified with methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) They present very low thermal conductivity of 0.030 – 0.034 W/m.K, indicating their great application in insulating fields Experimental results demonstrate that the hydrophobic PF aerogels can quickly adsorb motor oil (5w30) up to 37.9 g/g in only minute, approximately two times greater than commercial polypropylene and polyurethane sorbents For the oil adsorption kinetics of the PF aerogels, the pseudo-second order model can provide a good fit with regression value close to In comparison to commercial acoustic absorber Basmel®, the 2.0 wt.% PF aerogel with a thickness of 30 mm exhibits greater noise reduction coefficient of 0.52, indicating the competitiveness of developed aerogel with present product on the market TÓM TẮT Hơn 20 triệu dứa sản xuất hàng năm toàn cầu Sau vụ thu hoạch, phần lớn phụ phẩm dứa bị thải bỏ để tự phân hủy đốt đồng ruộng Trong luận văn này, sợi dứa (PF) từ phụ phẩm dứa lần tái chế thành vật liệu aerogel thân thiện với mơi trường có giá trị kỹ thuật cao cách sử dụng polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) chất liên kết chéo quy trình sấy thăng hoa tiết kiệm chi phí Vật liệu PF aerogel có cấu trúc rỗng xốp cao với độ rỗng từ 96,98 đến 98,85%, khối lượng riêng siêu thấp từ 0,013 đến 0,033 g/cm3, tính siêu kị nước với góc dính ướt khoảng 140° sau biến tính với methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) Vật liệu có độ dẫn nhiệt thấp khoảng 0,030 – 0,034 W/m.K, chứng tỏ tiềm ứng dụng vào lĩnh vực cách nhiệt Kết thí nghiệm chứng minh PF aerogel kị nước hấp phụ dầu nhớt 5w30 nhanh đến 37,9 g/g vòng phút, gấp hai lần hấp thụ thương mại polypropylene polyurethane Về động học hấp phụ dầu PF aerogel, mơ hình giả bậc hai cho thấy tương thích tốt với giá trị hồi quy gần Khi so sánh với vật liệu cách âm thương mại Basmel ®, PF aerogel chứa 2,0% sợi với bề dày 30 mm có giá trị hệ số tiêu âm cao đạt 0,52, chứng tỏ tính cạnh tranh vật liệu aerogel với sản phẩm có thị trường DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety I have duty acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used in the thesis This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously Master student Do Nguyen Hoang Nga CONTENT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS i LIST OF TABLES .ii LIST OF FIGURES iii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Situation of pineapple leaf waste in Vietnam 1.2 Oil-spill accident and current solutions .2 1.3 Noise pollution and acoustic insulation for construction 1.4 Food packaging and challenges 1.5 Aerogel CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW .8 2.1 Pineapple leaf fibers 2.2 Cellulose aerogel 10 2.2.1 Dispersion of cellulose .11 2.2.2 Gelation 12 2.2.3 Drying techniques .12 2.2.4 Modification of aerogels 15 2.3 Cellulose aerogel from agricultural waste 16 CHAPTER EXPERIMENTS AND CHARACTERIZATION 22 3.1 Materials .22 3.2 Experimental techniques .22 3.2.1 Preparation of pineapple fiber .22 3.2.2 Preparation of PVA solution 23 3.2.3 Fabrication of the PF aerogels 23 3.2.4 Development of the hydrophobic PF aerogels 24 3.2.5 Fabrication steps of the thermal insulated jacket development 24 3.3 Characterization 26 3.3.1 Density and porosity .26 3.3.2 Surface-area, pore size and pore volume determination 26 3.3.3 Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) .26 3.3.4 X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis 27 3.3.5 Compression test .27 3.3.6 Thermal conductivity 28 3.3.7 Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) 29 3.3.8 Water contact angle .29 3.3.9 Oil adsorption 30 3.3.10 Sound absorption 31 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 32 4.1 Characterization of developed PF aerogels .32 4.1.1 Morphologies and structure of the PF aerogels 32 4.1.2 X-ray diffraction (XRD) of the PF aerogels 34 4.1.3 FTIR spectroscopy of the PF aerogels 35 4.1.4 Water contact angle of the PF aerogels 35 4.1.5 Mechanical properties of the PF aerogels .36 4.2 Heat insulation of PF aerogels 39 4.2.1 Thermal conductivity 39 4.2.2 Heat insulation performance of PF aerogel-insulated jacket 40 4.2.3 Thermal stability .42 4.3 Acoustic insulation .43 4.4 Oil-spill cleaning up .44 4.4.1 Maximum oil adsorption capacity 44 4.4.2 Oil adsorption kinetics 45 4.4.3 Organic solvent adsorption .46 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK .48 5.1 Conclusion 48 5.2 Future work recommendations 48 REFERENCES .50 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 63 APPENDIX 64 SHORT CURRICULUM VITAE 69 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BET Brunauer-Emmett-Teller CAGR Compound annual growth rate GDP Gross domestic product IUPAC International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry MTMS Methyltrimethoxysilane PF Pineapple leaf fibers PVA Polyvinyl alcohol SEM Scanning electron microscopy TGA Thermogravimetric analysis XRD X-ray diffractograms i LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 A general summary of aerogel properties and potential applications Table 2.1 Properties of natural cellulose aerogels from agricultural waste 11 Table 3.1 Diameter and length of pineapple fibers 22 Table 4.1 Morphologies summary of PF aerogels 33 Table 4.2 Crystalline and amorphous content of PF, MTMS-uncoated aerogel and MTMS coated PF aerogels 34 Table 4.3 Water contact angles of PF aerogels 36 Table 4.4 Young’s modulus of PF aerogels .38 Table 4.5 Summary of the maximum oil adsorption capacities and the adsorption rate constants of the hydrophobic PF aerogels using the pseudo first- and pseudo second-order models 45 ii N.H.N Do et al Materials Chemistry and Physics 242 (2020) 122267 available product In comparison to our previous polymer aerogels from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) fibers, the PF aerogels exhibit better sound insulation performance, with a larger NRC than that of rPET aerogels (NRC of 0.45) [50] The effect of thickness on the acoustic performance of PF aerogels at the same PF concentration of 2.0 wt% is depicted in Fig 5b The sound absorption coefficient of the PF aerogel increases with its thickness in a low-frequency range ( accessed 22.05.2019 Hanlin C., Bowen G., Mark P P., Thanh X N., Nhan P-T., Hai M D., 2017, Cotton aerogels and cotton-cellulose aerogels from 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0.3489 26.06 0.013 98.78 0.3557 28.43 0.013 98.86 0.6005 26.28 0.023 97.90 0.6002 31.00 0.019 98.22 0.5995 28.77 0.021 98.09 1.0947 37.86 0.029 97.32 1.0943 32.87 0.033 96.92 1.0980 33.50 0.033 96.96 0.5540 32.62 0.017 98.43 0.5580 29.40 0.019 98.24 0.5551 29.86 0.019 98.28 0.7034 23.81 0.024 97.84 0.7004 25.46 0.025 97.69 0.6954 21.70 0.022 98.03 1.0 0.2 2.0 0.2 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.4 Appendix Water contact angle of modified PF aerogels PF content (wt.%) PVA content (wt.%) External surface (°) Cross-sectional area (°) 0.5 0.2 138.2 136.4 138.5 136.7 139.0 138.5 138.3 137.3 138.5 138.7 144.3 143.4 144.5 142.2 144.8 142.4 143.4 142.5 143.7 142.4 145.5 144.5 146.2 144.4 145.5 145.0 147.2 144.0 147.3 144.2 1.0 2.0 0.2 0.2 64 PF content (wt.%) PVA content (wt.%) External surface (°) Cross-sectional area (°) 1.0 0.1 141.3 141.2 141.8 140.0 142.9 140.0 141.8 141.5 140.5 141.6 148.0 147.1 148.6 147.5 149.6 148.0 148.7 148.4 148.5 148.6 1.0 0.4 Appendix Oil adsorption capacity of hydrophobic PF aerogels PF content (wt.%) PVA content (wt.%) Initial mass of aerogel (g) Final mass of aerogel and oil (g) Adsorption capacity (g oil/g aerogel) 0.5 0.2 0.0409 1.6067 38.3 0.0241 0.9615 38.9 0.0330 1.2375 36.5 0.0300 0.9321 30.1 0.0312 1.0171 31.6 0.0252 0.8348 32.1 0.0373 1.0239 26.5 0.0202 0.5979 28.6 0.0341 0.8768 24.7 0.0402 1.2765 30.8 0.0322 1.0772 32.5 0.0350 1.2073 33.5 0.0144 0.4471 30.0 0.0326 0.9859 29.2 0.0673 2.2090 31.8 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.4 65 Appendix Organic solvent adsorption capacity of hydrophobic PF aerogels with PF content of 0.5 wt.% and PVA content of 0.2 wt.% Acetone Ethanol Isopropanol Mass of aerogel (g) Mass of aerogel and solvent (g) Adsorption capacity (g/g) Mass of aerogel (g) Mass of aerogel and solvent (g) Adsorption capacity (g/g) Mass of aerogel (g) Mass of aerogel and solvent (g) Adsorption capacity (g/g) 0.3674 11.5731 30.5 0.3276 9.4349 27.8 0.3938 11.3808 27.9 0.3547 11.7051 32.0 0.3127 9.4748 29.3 0.3516 10.5832 29.1 0.4321 14.3458 32.2 0.3381 9.5344 27.2 0.3672 10.2082 26.8 Appendix Oil adsorption kinetics of hydrophobic PF aerogels PF content (wt.%) PVA content (wt.%) Initial mass of aerogel (g) 0.5 0.2 1.0 Instantaneous mass of aerogel and oil (g) 2s 5s 10 s 15 s 20 s 30 s 60 s 0.0311 0.6166 0.7727 0.7656 0.9225 0.9519 1.0152 1.1490 0.2 0.0224 0.3648 0.4348 0.5468 0.6108 0.6276 0.6347 0.6698 2.0 0.2 0.0474 0.4240 0.7399 0.7882 0.9626 1.0416 1.1560 1.3011 1.0 0.1 0.0373 0.6919 0.9567 1.0184 1.0264 1.0878 1.1338 1.1429 1.0 0.4 0.0326 0.3834 0.8215 0.9193 0.9258 0.9487 0.9617 1.0106 Appendix Thermal conductivity of PF aerogels at ambient temperature PF content (wt.%) PVA content (wt.%) Temperature (°C) Thermal conductivity (W/m.K) 0.5 0.2 23.9 0.030 23.8 0.031 23.5 0.030 24.3 0.032 24.2 0.030 24.4 0.031 21.9 0.034 21.9 0.033 24.2 0.034 24.2 0.031 24.0 0.031 23.8 0.030 24.3 0.032 24.2 0.031 24.2 0.032 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.4 66 Appendix Temperature (°C) of water inside PF aerogel-insulated and uninsulated bottles Time (min) Hot water Ice slurry Military canteen with thermal jacket Military canteen without thermal jacket Military canteen with thermal jacket Military canteen without thermal jacket -3 -3 90 90 30 -3 74 67 60 -2 68 55 90 -2 63 46 120 -1 59 40 150 -1 55 35 180 -1 11 52 32 210 14 49 29 240 16 46 28 270 17 44 26 300 18 42 25 330 19 40 24 360 20 38 24 67 Appendix (a) Pore size distribution of PF aerogels with increasing PF concentration, and (b) nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm of 2.0 wt.% PF aerogel 68 SHORT CURRICULUM VITAE Personal information Full name: Do Nguyen Hoang Nga Sex: Female Date of birth: 08/11/1996 Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh City Phone: 0379428717 Email: hoangnga.0896@gmail.com Working address: 268 Ly Thuong Kiet St., Ward 14, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Education profile a Undergraduate (2014 – 2018) Graduated from: Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology – Vietnam National University Major: Chemical Engineering Mode of study: Full time Degree classification: Very good b Post-graduate (2018 – present) Currently studying Master program at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology – Vietnam National University – Major of Chemical Engineering Internship at National University of Singapore, Singapore (15/02/2019 – 14/09/2019) about developing aerogels from agricultural waste Working experience 09/2018 – present: Research Engineer at Refinery & Petrochemicals Technology Research Centre, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology – Vietnam National University 07/2018 – 09/2018: Research Engineer in R&D Department at VIDAN Co., Ltd 69 ... Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh City Major: Chemical Engineering Code: 8520301 I THESIS TITLE: FABRICATION OF ADVANCED AEROGELS FROM PINEAPPLE LEAF FIBERS FOR OIL- SPILL CLEANING, HEAT AND SOUND INSULATION. .. fibers for oil- spill cleaning, heat and sound insulation develops the process of converting pineapple leaf fibers into aerogels with effective heat and sound insulation, and oil adsorption CHAPTER... materials for aerogel production is urgent now, in line with the trend of high-performance but eco-friendly materials The thesis Fabrication of advanced aerogels from pineapple leaf fibers for oil- spill