Abstract
To study the relationship between the chemical composition and aggregation structure of windmill palm fibres, the Grey System theory, least-squares method and MATLAB® software were used to develop a grey model that relates the crystallinity index to the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin content of the fibres after alkaline peroxide bleaching. The mean arithmetic error (=0.109) of the grey model (GM (1,4)) indicated that the model could predict the crystallinity of windmill palm fibre based on its chemical composition. Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman microscopy were used to characterize the morphology and chemical composition of the windmill palm fibres before and after alkaline peroxide bleaching. The results indicated that silica, as well as most of the pectin, hemicellulose and lignin, were removed after peroxide bleaching, and thus, the crystallinity index of the peroxide-bleached samples increased. The GM (1,4) provided a reference for studying the influence of the chemical composition of windmill palm fibre on its aggregate structure.
Highlights
The aggregate structure of fibres is composed of crystal and amorphous cellulose, which influences the properties of the fibres
A grey model (GM) (1,4) relating fibre chemical composition to the cellulose crystallinity index (CrI) was developed based on experimental data
Bleached fibres resulted in a higher cellulose CrI of the fibres
Summary
The aggregate structure of fibres is composed of crystal and amorphous cellulose, which influences the properties of the fibres. The region with regular cellulose macromolecules is called the crystal region. The amorphous region consists of irregularly aligned cellulose macromolecules. Windmill palm is one of the most widely distributed trees in East Asia.[2] Owing to the advantages of windmill palm fibre, such as its low density, high strength, high biodegradability and high abundance, this fibre material has received much attention as an exceptional environmentally compatible resource.[3,4,5] The main components of windmill palm fibre include hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin.[6] To date, several studies have examined the aggregation structure of flax,[7] ramie,[8] cotton,[9] oil palm empty fruit bunches[10]
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