Analyses of the Chemical Compositions and Structures of Four Bamboo Species and their Natural Fibers by Infrared, Laser, and X-ray Spectroscopies

Abstract

Four bamboo species, natural bamboo fibers (NBF) from each species, commercial bamboo viscose, and other conventional fibers were investigated to determine and compare elemental compositions, chemical bonds, and behaviors. Elemental analyses with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were executed to identify elemental compositions, O/C ratios of raw bamboo (0.26–0.42) and NBFs (0.44–0.70), binding energies, and components of C 1s and O 1s peaks and corresponding chemical bonds: C-C, C-H, C-O, C=O, O-C-O, and O-C=O. It was revealed that O/C ratio and moisture regain or content increased as the fineness of NBFs increased. Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) with attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and Raman spectroscopies were employed to make a broad list of identified characteristic peaks and their chemicals information of different bamboo species, NBFs, cotton, and regenerated cellulosic fibers. The investigation suggests that NBFs may possess most of the chemical groups and behaviors from the respective bamboo plants, and thus the properties. It was observed that bamboo viscose had similar bands as regular viscose/rayon, unlike raw bamboo and NBFs spectra. Results also revealed that bamboo and NBFs had some unique peaks that were not detected in cotton or viscose fibers.