Pemanfaatan Tongkol Jagung Sebagai Bahan Dasar Pembuatan Super Absorben Polymer

Abstract

Corncob, the remnant of a corn plant, is considered as reusable waste for its richness in fibers that can help with water absorption, such as cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. At this point, superabsorbent polymer has been developed to absorb water, and has possessed the absorptive capacity up to hundreds times more than polymer mass. In agriculture, improving physical properties of the soil for the better productivity is something that has been done for a long time. This research was conducted to examine what corncob contains so it can be used as the basic component of the SAP making. In this study, the test methods used are the cellulose test for discovering the cellulose content in corncob, and the swelling test in order to determine the water percentage that can be absorbed by SAP. Also being conducted is the observations to calculate how much time is needed for SAP to shrink. This research finds that corncob contains 60% of cellulose, which is a sufficient number. Moreover, to make SAP, a cellulose component is required. From the swelling test, it is determined that the percentage of SAP water absorption is 1255%, and based on the process observations, the SAP shrinkage needs 10 days to return to the normal weight.