Chemical Degumming of Kenyan Sisal Fiber.pdf

1、As the result of greater environmental awareness, the demand for environmentally friendlymaterials is significantly raised.Consequently, in recent years, many researchers have beendevoted to the use of ligno-cellulose fi

2、bers such as flax, hemp, ramie or sisal fibers asreplacement for Synthetic fibers in polymer composites.
　　 In this work, the composition, structure and physiochemical properties of un-degummeddecorticated sisal, Sod

3、ium hydroxide degummed decorticated sisal and hydrogen peroxidedegummed decorticated sisal were investigated.Characterization techniques like Scanningelectron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transfo

4、rm infraredspectroscopy (FT-IR), were used to elucidate the effects of chemical degumming on the sisalfibers.Taguchi approach was used to obtain optimum chemical degumming parameters.
　　 Wet chemical analysis and FT-

5、IR, were used to measure the chemical compounds present inuntreated.It was found out that Kenyan sisal fiber is composed of 66.4 ％ celullose,18.3％ ofhemi-cellulose, 11.6％ lignin, 1.5 ％ of was and 1.2 ％ of pectin.The FT-I

6、R results of NaOH andPeroxide degummed Sisal fibers showed that all treatments removed non-cellulosic materialsfrom the sisal fiber as confirmed by removal of the peak around 1735 cm-1, which can beattributed to the pres

7、ence of the carboxylic ester in pectin and wax and also some peaks reducingin their intensities when compared to the untreated fibers.
　　 An examination of surface morphology of Sisal fibers carried out using SEM rev

8、ealed that afterdegumming all treated fibers got cleaner and smoother surfaces than untreated ones.XRD wascarried out to assess modification of the crystallinity of fibers and the results showed Sisal fibercrystallinity

9、increased in all treated fibers from 70％ to 77％.Bundle fiber tensile testing wasused to examine the tenacity strength of untreated and treated fibers and it was found that thedegumming methods were accompanied by a decre

10、ase in the fiber tenacity of all degummedfibers.It can be concluded that indeed the peroxide degumming method can be used indegumming as it showed improved results when comparing it to the traditional alkali method ofdeg