Characterization of eichhornia crassipes natural fibers and their composites

Abstract

The increased awareness among the society has led to the invention of many green newlinematerials in the past few decades. The development of natural fiber composites plays newlinesignificant role in identifying better alternatives for structural applications. Natural fibers newlinecollected from various plants Prosopis juliflora, Arundo donax, Cissus quadrangularis, newlineGrewia damine, Ficus religiosa, etc., have attracted many industries industrial people due newlineto their desirable characteristics. From this motivation, Eichhornia crassipes fiber (ECF) newlinehas been chosen in the current study for characterizing and testing the suitability for newlinepreparing high strength polymer composite materials. ECF is commonly known as water newlinehyacinth. Water hyacinth is first introduced in Bengal where it is referred as blue devil or newlinethe Bengal terror, as it posed threat to many aquatic plants and aquatic animals. So it is newlineimportant to control this plant from growth. Even though there are many biological, newlinechemical and physical ways to control the growth of this plant, it is wise to use this for newlinevarious other applications to multiply the benefit by many folds. The physical, chemical, newlinestructural, crystallographic, thermal and surface topographical properties of fiber extracted newlinefrom the stem of Eichhornia crassipes plant was characterized and reported in this study. newlinePhysical and chemical analysis results revealed that Eichhornia crassipes fiber (ECF) has newlinecomparatively lower density (1350 kg/m3) and higher cellulose content (59.86 wt.%). The newlineX-ray diffraction spectroscopy results acknowledged that ECF has the crystallinity index newline(44.32%) and crystalline size of 5.09 nm respectively. Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) newlineand differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis results of ECF exhibited that it can be newlinethermally stable up to 200o C. All the results of ECF establish that it is a suitable newlinereplacement for the artificial fibers used as reinforcement in fiber reinforced plastics. newlineNatural fibers are normally treated with alkali solution for achieving surface newlinemodifica