Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the grade of roughness of coconut fiber surface as result of sodium hydroxide and potassium permanganate treatment. Research stages are soaking for 3 hours, testing, and data processing. Coconut fiber is soaked in 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% sodium hydroxide solution. Then soaked in 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1% potassium permanganate solution. After that, the coconut fiber is dried in the oven at 90 °C for 5 hours. Thereafter, measurement of surface roughness. The measurement of surface roughness was did in two methods namely SEM, and surface roughness gauge. Based on the results of the tests, it was concluded that the higher concentrations of sodium hydroxide and potassium permanganate solutions gave higher grades of surface roughness compared with untreated fibers.
Highlights
As one of the green plants, natural fiber contains the main elements of lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose
First group coconut fiber is soaked in 5% sodium hydroxide solution for 3 hours
The roughness of the surface of the coconut fiber shown in Fig. 1a is different from the others
Summary
As one of the green plants, natural fiber contains the main elements of lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose. Lignin is a macromolecular polyphenol compound whereas cellulose and hemicellulose are polysaccharide compounds. Natural fibers are hydrophilic, meaning they are easy to absorb water [1] [2]. This will result in low of bonding strength between natural fibers and matrix, in addition to fiber surfaces still containing impurities and other elements [3]. The use of natural fibers as a composite reinforcer is still being studied and researched because natural fibers have several advantages such as light weight, large quantities, elasticity, low production cost, and no environmental pollution [4]. In studied used natural fibers are bamboo, banana, pineapple, coconut, palm fiber [5]
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