Abstract

Previous studies on university waste have shown that paper products constitute a large proportion of the solid waste
generated. Hence, to reduce paper wastage, wastepaper can be reused for the extraction of cellulose for other application such as
biomaterial for the production of biodegradable products. This study is aimed to extract and characterize cellulose from wastepaper
collected in University of Cyberjaya (UoC). Pre-treatment with sonicator, alkaline and bleaching treatments were employed for the
extraction of cellulose. The functional group present in the extracted wastepaper cellulose (WPC) was determined using fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were
carried out to characterize its thermal stability. The hydration property of WPC was evaluated by water retention capacity (WRC).
All the characterization analyses of WPC were compared to commercialized microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). 53.1% of WPC
was successfully extracted with some extent of lignin and its purity was supported by the FT-IR findings where the functional
groups of cellulose were detected. In thermal analysis, WPC has lower thermal stability than MCC due to its lesser crystalline
structure. WPC has higher WRC than MCC because of its bigger particle size. The results obtained in this study reflect the
effectiveness of the methods applied in extracting WPC. Extraction of WPC for the utilization in biomaterial production is definitely
a practical way to reduce paper waste.

Key words: Cellulose, Extraction, Wastepaper