NUR FATIN NABILA Saari, DALINA Samsudin, NOR MAZLINA Abdul Wahab, NOOR AISHATUN Majid, RUSLI Daik and MOHD AZLAN Mohd Ishak. Preparation and Characterization of Lignin from Malaysian Coconut Coir Husk (CCH) as a Potential Precursor in Phenol-Formaldehyde (Phenolic) Resins for the Plastics Industry. Advanced Materials Research Vol. 1133 (2016) pp 583-587

Abstract. Coconut coir husk (CCH) was chosen to extract its lignin due to high lignin content comparable with other natural fibre. The lignin was extracted and its utilization in production of phenolic resin was investigated. The percentage extracted lignin obtained in this studies was 38.1 % which indicated the high yield of lignin. Two phenolic resins were prepared, which are phenolformaldehyde resin and lignin-formaldehyde resin. The functional group present in the lignin and both phenolic resins were further analyzed using the Fourier Transform InfraRed Spectroscopy (FTIR). The findings from the infrared spectra of the lignin-formaldehyde resin were similar to the phenol-formaldehyde resin. These indicate that lignin can be partially used as phenol in phenolic resin synthesis.

Keywords: Lignin, Coconut Coir Husk, Phenolic resin, Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR)