Cellulose-based Phase Change Materials for fever compress
Raudhatul Fadhilah(*a), Doddy Irawan(b)

(a) Departement of Chemistry, Universitas Muhammadiyah Pontianak
*raudhatul.fadhilah[at]unmuhpnk.ac.id
(b) Departement of Mechanical Engineering, Universitas Muhammadiyah Pontianak

Abstract

Cases of death due to fever that is not handled properly increases every year. Fever is an early indicator of the body being infected, so that early intervention for fever needs to be done so that the body does not convulse due to significant changes in heat. So far, people have used instant fever-reducing compresses for initial treatment. Instant compresses can absorb heat from the body up to 3 &#730-C. Instant compresses circulating in the market are imported goods made of hydrogel and have the disadvantage of being used only once. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a heat-reducing compress that can be used repeatedly with local material sources. The purpose of this study was to produce a medical device in the form of a fever compress. In this research, phase change material (PCM) will be synthesized by cellulose capsulation method. The cellulose used comes from banana peel waste. Banana peel is a waste generated from processing bananas with the amount of skin produced is 2.09 million tons per year. The high waste generated has great prospects for processing into cellulose. This research is an experimental study with a central composite design with variations in cellulose weight, cellulose shape, and paraffin weight. As a comparison, used instant compresses on the market.

Keywords: cellulose- compress- fever- phase change material

Topic: Polymer Chemistry & Bio-based Materials