Abstract
The journey for sustainable solutions in the environment to create safe, cheap and assessable materials in society requires the use of more plant-based natural fibres in the industry. In this work, the acid hydrolysis process was adopted to isolate organosolv-microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) from oil palm fronds (OPF). Complementary analyses such as cross polarisationlmagic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (CPI MAS C-13 NMR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanningcalorimetry (DSC), therrnogravimetrk analysis (TGA), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed extracted MCC bear a resemblance to commercial-MCC. Polymer solution casting technique was adopted to prepare different ratios of MCC-polylactic acid (PLA)-lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonypimide (LiTFSI) solid polymer electrolytes and electrical conductivities of polymer electrolyte films were investigated through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). BO5 (organosolv-MCC-PLA-20 wt% LmTFSI) showed the maximum ionic conductivity of 1.25 x 10(5) S cm(-1), while 5 wt% 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMIMCI) ionic liquid added revealed a positive effect of BMIMCI on the ionic conductivity of the polymer electrolyte yielding a higher conductivity of 2.3 x 10(5) S cm(-1).