Judul: Production of Nanocellulose- Polyvinyl Alcohol- Alginate Based Filaments
Abstrak: Oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFBs) are solid waste that are produced from crude palm oil extraction. Generally, it contains around 41-46.5% of cellulose, 25.3-33.8% of hemicellulose, and 27.6-32.5% of lignin (Suriyani 2009). Nanocellulose (NC) was isolated from OPEFBs through several treatments, including delignification, bleaching, ultrafine grinding, and ultrasonication. The obtained nanocellulose was processed further into filaments by mixing with sodium alginate and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). In this project, nanocellulose- PVA- alginate based filaments were produced by wet spinning method with CaCl2 as coagulant solvent. The effect of several formulations and CaCl2 concentration on the morphological, mechanical, and thermal properties of filaments were observed. The results showed that the increasing of NC concentration produced filaments that have better thermal properties and higher crystallinity, but the morphology of filament surface become rougher. The increasing of NC concentration up to 7% also increased the filament mechanical properties. Meanwhile, the increasing of CaCl2 concentration produced filaments that have better thermal properties, smoother surface, and higher crystallinity (up to 10% CaCl2), but with decreasing of mechanical properties (tensile strength) due to some cracks that occured on the surface of filaments with 13% of CaCl2.
Keyword: coagulant solvent, filaments, nanocellulose, oil palm empty fruit bunches, wet spinning

Judul: Production of Polyvinyl Alcohol-Lignin Nanocomposite Film with Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch as Lignin Source
Abstrak: One effort to reduce the food spoilage from microorganisms is by using active packaging that can maintain the quality of the products. Lignin is a material that has antimicrobial properties, antioxidants, anti-UV, and a good reinforcement agent in matrix polymers which is a potential candidate of active packaging material. One source of lignin is oil palm empty bunches (OPEFB). The purpose of this study was to produce lignin nanoparticle (nanolignin) from OPEFB and produce its PVA-nanocomposite. Nanolignin was produced by mechanical treatment by using ultrasonication. PVA-nanocomposites were produced from the mixture of PVA with different molecular weight (degree of polymerization 500 and 2000) as the matrix with the addition of nanolignin (0, 1, 3, and 5 wt%) as the fillers. The casting method was implemented to produce nanocomposite. The morphology of film was observed by using scanning electron method (SEM), chemical component by fourier transform infrared (FTIR), transparency by UV-vis spectrometer, mechanical properties by tensile strength analysis and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and thermal properties by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The addition of nanolignin until 3 wt% increased crystallinity, tensile strength, and thermal properties of nanocomposite films. However, the addition of 5 wt% of nanolignin showed that the nanolignin is well dispersed in the low molecular weight of PVA matrix, which was shown by the high Young’s modulus and low crystallinity. Nanolignin is a good filler for the next-generation functional nanocomposite, especially in the manufacturing of the active packaging.
Keyword: mechanical properties, nanocomposite, nanolignin, oil palm fruit bunch (OPEFB), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)

Judul: Biologi Troides helena helena dan Troides helena hephaestus (Papilionidae) di Penangkaran
Abstrak: Indonesia adalah negara kepulauan beriklim tropik dengan berbagai tipe habitat dan ekosistem. Kondisi alam Indonesia merupakan habitat yang cocok bagi berbagai fauna termasuk kupu-kupu. Diperkirakan sekitar 4 000 – 5 000 jenis kupu-kupu terdapat di Indonesia. Troides helena merupakan salah satu kupu-kupu yang memiliki kombinasi warna sayap indah dan berukuran besar, sehingga menarik perhatian kolektor kupu-kupu. T. helena termasuk satwa yang diperdagangkan dan telah memasukkan devisa dari subsektor kehutanan Indonesia. Untuk mencegah dari kepunahan karena eksploitasi yang berlebihan, maka pemerintah melindungi T. helena melalui PP No. 7 Tahun 1999. Semua genus Troides masuk dalam daftar Appendix II CITES, sehingga perdagangan jenis ini harus merupakan hasil budi daya di penangkaran.
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