Abstract
Banana fibers are an agricultural waste material with a great exploitation potential due to their cellulose-rich content. Raw banana fibers (RBF) were treated with 3-aminopropyltriethoxy silane and glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy silane to improve the inherent limitations of banana fibers, namely its poor cell adhesion. The fibers’ modification was evaluated by inverse gas chromatography (IGC). Similar γ values were observed between the RBF and silane-treated fibers (39–41 mJ/m2), which indicates similar reactivity towards apolar probes. However, the decrease in the entropic parameter indicates the silane covalent bonding with the cellulose chains making a stiffer structure. Organosilane grafting was confirmed by an increased basic character in the silane-treated fibers (Kb/Ka from 1.03 to 2.81). The surface morphology also changed towards higher contact area (SBET increases 6.7 times) and porosity (Dp increases up to 67%). Both morphological and functional group reactivity changes suggest that the organosilane treatment offers new opportunities for these fibers to be used as adsorbents for proteins as well as to cell adhesion. Therefore, IGC proved a simple and viable technique in the characterization of silane-treated fibers.
Highlights
The use of bio-based renewable materials has been the focus of the scientific community towards all environmental preservation and sustainability of resources
Banana fibers were functionalized with two organosilanes: aminopropyltriethoxy silane (APS) and glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy silane (GPS) in order to promote the compatibility with the hydrophobic matrices as well as to reduce the moisture capacity to preserve the inherent mechanical properties of cellulose
After the chemical modification of banana fibers with APS and GPS, a slight increase of Si specific peaks around 1160–1104 cm-1 and at 700 cm-1, which fact was attributed to Si–O–Si and Si–O–C symmetric stretching
Summary
The use of bio-based renewable materials has been the focus of the scientific community towards all environmental preservation and sustainability of resources. Natural fibers such as those from banana fibers, offer several advantages: they are plentiful, biodegradable, present low health hazards and possess a relatively high tensile strength (Xie et al 2010). Natural fibers present potential to be applied as a reinforcement material, the hydrophilic character attributed to the rich hydroxyl surface can limit the applications due to the low compatibility with non-polar matrices such as resins, polypropylene and polyethylene, and to cell adhesion (Abdelmouleh et al 2002). The chemical grafting of the silane onto the surface of the fibers (Fig. 1) encompasses the following steps: (1) the hydrolysis of the silane alkoxy groups onto silanol; (2) the adsorption of the silanol groups onto the OH-rich surface of the fibers through hydrogen bonding and (3) chemical condensation leading to siloxane bridges (Si–O-Si) and grafting onto the surface of the fibers through Si–
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