Abstract
In the past decades, conventional petroleum-based plastics have resulted in environmental and sustainability issues. Thus, there has been significant interest in the utilization of natural materials for nanofibers product such as for filtration media. However, poor compatibility exists between polymers and natural fibers due to natural fibers hydrophilic properties leading to poor nanofibers formation. In this study, Pineapple Leaf Fiber (PALF) remarkable properties were explored. PALF undergo alkaline treatment and bleaching treatment in order to improve its compatibility. Thermal, morphology and structural properties of PALF raw (PR), PALF after alkali treatments (PA) and PALF after alkali + bleaching treatment (PB) were studied. Further, all the samples were diluted using Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA) as the solvent and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) as the polymer carrier and proceed to electrospinning to produce a nanofibers electrospun mats. The electrospun mats were then characterized in terms of its chemical properties using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) as well as the morphology which using Fields Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). FTIR result shows the electrospun PET does not produce any peak at ~3400cm-1 due to its hydrophobic properties. Nevertheless, with addition of PALF, the peak was significantly increased. FESEM results indicated that the present of fibers led to a tendency of lower average fiber diameter compared to the neat PET. Unconnected and thin fibers were coexited from single fiber of PALF raw electrospun indicated that new fibers were ejected however the bond were collapsed during ejection thus did not produce a complete single fiber. Despite that, more uniform fibers of electrospun mat were produced by pre-treatment of PALF.
Highlights
Researchers start to develop interest on green and sustainable materials to replace synthetic fibers due to the critical drawbacks of synthetic fibers [1]
Pineapple leaf fibers (PALF) is organized into fibrils, which are surrounded by a matrix of lignin, hemicellulose and pectin
Even there are many papers already been published on PALF, there were only few that were proceed to the PALF nanofibers
Summary
Researchers start to develop interest on green and sustainable materials to replace synthetic fibers due to the critical drawbacks of synthetic fibers [1]. Natural fibers were claimed to offer environmental advantages such as renewable, biodegradable, green friendly and good mechanical properties [2]. Reducing lignin and hemicellulose amount help to increased crystalline cellulose content which contributed to improvement on thermal and chemical properties [1]. Electrospinning method is a convenient with a multi-purpose method that aims on producing fibers with diameter range from several micrometers to tens of nanometers [9] Through this method, nanofibers size of PALF could be produced. Electrospun nanofibers have become promising materials for many biomedical applications such as wound dressing, drug delivery and tissue scaffold [11, 12] It is known for industrial purposes such as for reinforcing materials, filtration media and protective clothing [13]
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