Characterization and the mechanical property determination of sansevieria roxburghiana leaf fibers and polymer composites

Abstract

newline Material science is concerned with the study of properties of metals, non metals, plastics and composites and their selection for a particular purpose. Nowadays scientists and researchers are doing research to innovate new products that are biodegradable and environment friendly during and after their use. Currently plastics and composites are gaining attention to be used as products in several fields. A composite is a material system that encompasses matrix and reinforcement. Natural fibers are found abundant, cheap and possess good strength to weight ratio. Artificial fibers are costly, not recyclable and not biodegradable. To reduce the use of manmade fibers an attempt was made to extract fibers from Sansevieria Roxburghiana (SR fibers, Mottamanji in tamil) plant for composite manufacturing in the present research. It s a succulent xerophytes plant. The fibers were extracted from the young leaves by using water retting method. There are enormous amount of literatures to back the use of natural fibers. Various characterization studies were conducted using FTIR (Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy), XRD(X - Ray Diffractometer), AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy), TGA (Thermogravimetric Analyzer)and SEM (Scanning electron microscope) with EDAX(Energy Dispersive Analysis of X-rays). Studies showed that the fibers contain cellulose (78.63wt%), lignin (9.86wt%) . Hemicellulose was found to be (2.01wt%). Wax, ash and wetness content are found to be 0.16wt%, 1.49wt% and 7.85wt%. The density of fibers was found using standard pycnometric tests. X-ray diffraction studies were used to reveal crystallinity index and crystalline size. Hydrogen bond energy and hydrogen bond distance were calculated.