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| The Extraction and Bleaching of Plantain Peduncle waste Fiber through Alkaline Mercerization Process
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Orlando Ketebu, Ebiundu Komonibo, Doubara Wozi
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Abstract:
The increasing demand for fiber in fields such as engineering, building and construction, textile, medical, automobile etc. has resulted in rise in the production of synthetic fibers from petroleum products which are non-degradable and hazardous to humans and the environment. To minimize this hazard from synthetic fibers, has led to the uncontrolled cutting of forest for wood fibers thus, exposing the environment to infrared rays from the sun. The use of plant waste material such as plantain peduncle for fiber production, is one way of solving this problem. This research looks at the extraction and bleaching of plantain peduncle waste fiber using mercerization techniques and its characterization. The experimental results showed that the unbleached plantain peduncle fiber after alkaline mercerization had rough surfaces with some impurities which can be attributed to the NaOH solution dissolving waxy, gummy materials in the peduncle cells and the removal of lignin and hemicellulose. The bleached peduncle fiber was brighter in colour compared to the unbleached fiber due to its high crystallinity which indicates further removal of impurities, lignin and hemicellulose from the fiber as shown in the SEM images. The FTIR analysis of the unbleached and bleached fibers showed broad peaks at 3295 cm-1 and 3308 cm-1 respectively indicating the presence of O-H bonds in the fibers. The peaks at 2922 cm-1 indicates C-H group in both fibers. The absence of absorbance peak at 1736 cm-1 for the bleached fiber showed that lignin and some hemicellulose were removed from the unbleached fiber during bleaching process. The FTIR analysis indicates the functional groups present in the fiber and how bleaching affects the structure and chemical changes in the fiber. The XRD analysis showed peaks at 2? of 22.14 o corresponding to the crystallographic phase of cellulose (I_200) and 2? of 16.18o indicating the amorphous phase (I_101) for unbleached fiber. Similar peaks at 2? of 22.33o and 16.14o was found for the bleached fiber. There was an increase in the crystalline index from 34% for unbleached fiber to and 50% for the bleached fiber, which showed that the bleaching process removed lignin, hemicellulose and the amorphous parts indicating an increased in the cellulose content of the bleached fiber. The tensile strength analysis of the fiber using universal tensile testing machine showed that the unbleached fiber had tensile strength of 118 MPa and bleached fiber (124 MPa) respectively. The increase in tensile strength of the bleached fiber is due to the improve crystallinity of the fiber after bleaching.
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