Wet processing of agro-residual fibres for potential application in fancy décor items

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research compares the change of physical and chemical properties of three types of agro-residual (AgR) fibres namely banana plant stem fibre (BSF), pineapple leaf fibre (PALF) and corn husk fibre (CHF) by wet processing steps: scouring, bleaching and dyeing. Bleaching operation was performed using mild sodium chlorite concentration. The percentage of lignin and hemicelluloses were remarkably declined and densities of the fibres were increased. The highest amount of α-cellulose is found 88.7% for bleached BSF, followed by bleached PALF (78.4%) and bleached CHF (70.1%). The morphology changes of the fibres due to bleaching were clearly detected by FTIR spectroscopy. The bleached fibres were dyed with two different types of reactive dyes viz. Reactive Orange 2 R-XF and Reactive Blue F-R by conventional dyeing technique. The absorption of dyes was tested by UV-vis spectroscopy. It was seen that the dye absorption percentage of all types of fibre are not equal. The dye absorption was also diverged in the case of two reactive dyes. Colour fastness properties of dyed fibres were tested under sunlight, wash and reagent spot tests. All the dyed fibres were exhibited excellent colour fastness properties. Reactive Orange 2 R-XF showed better fastness property than Reactive Blue F-R in every investigation.