Studies on physical properties of wine palm and Roselle natural fibers

Abstract

In this work, fiber strands of Wine Palm (Caryota urens) and Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) plants were extracted and characterized. The extracted fiber strands were given water treatment for making comparisons with its dried counterpart. Techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) were used to determine the micro structure, morphological properties and chemical compositions. Mechanical properties were studied using universal testing machine (UTM). XRD results indicate an increase in crystallinity of the fiber strands with water treatment and FTIR Spectroscopy reveals the variation of functional groups in these fibers. SEM analysis indicates smoothening of the surface on water treatment. The fineness of these fiber strands was found to be 372.18 denier and 13.63 denier respectively for CU and HS fibers. UTM results confirm that tensile strength increases on water treatment for both the fibers. These fibers have competitive advantages when evaluated with other natural fibers.

Keywords

• x-ray diffraction
• fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy
• scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy
• natural fiber
• retting
• universal testing machine