Abstract
Currently, natural cellulose fiber composite is a promising prospect in the composite world. However, achieving uniform strength in natural fiber composite is a challenge due to limited fiber length and its random orientation in the composite. Thus, the focus of this paper was to obtain a continuous cellulose fiber from mengkuang leaves using chemical extraction process. The chemical extraction involved alkaline treatment of the mengkuang leave followed by bleaching. This paper focused on extraction using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and its process parameters. The process parameters of the extraction were varied in terms of concentration of NaOH solution and also the soaking time. The texture and structure of the chemically purified continuous cellulose fiber were observed by visual inspection. Detailed microstructural analysis was carried out using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) while chemical composition analysis in term of cellulose percentage was conducted using Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI); TAPPI T203. Preliminary results showed that increment in cellulose percentage when the concentration of NaOH and soaking time were increased.
Highlights
Natural fiber is widely used in automobile and household industries such as materials for interior of passenger cars, truck cabins, furniture and as thermo-acoustic insulation material [1]
Mengkuang leaf possesses high strength which makes it suitable for making rope, hats and mats [6].The strength of natural fibers is directly related to their cellulose content [7] and mengkuang leaves have shown to exhibit high cellulose content [6]
Linear regression analysis led to Eq 1 and Eq 2 which can be used to model the relationship between NaOH concentration, x and cellulose percentage, y at 120 min and 60 min of soaking time, respectively; y = 2.34x + 47.58 ; R2= 0.981 (1)
Summary
Natural fiber is widely used in automobile and household industries such as materials for interior of passenger cars, truck cabins, furniture and as thermo-acoustic insulation material [1]. The cellulose needs to be extracted in the form of long fiber before it can be incorporated into other matrix materials to produce composite materials with high strength for potential use in the automotive, construction, manufacturing and other industries. Most of the treatments used highly aggressive hydrolysis and/or shearing force during fibrillation which often resulted in short fiber length of the cellulose obtained [10]. There have been several works attempted to reduce the filler to nano size They attempted to study the effect of nano size fiber on composite’s tensile strength. In this study the effects of extraction parameters in obtaining continuous and high level cellulose fiber content from mengkuang leaf were investigated
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