Cellulose extraction from red sage fiber, Prosopis Juliflora fiber, vegetable waste filler: Applications in PLA based bio composites

Sumesh Keerthiveettil Ramakrishnan; Ajithram Arivendan; Kavimani Vijayananth

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.138102

Cellulose extraction from red sage fiber, Prosopis Juliflora fiber, vegetable waste filler: Applications in PLA based bio composites

Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Nov 26:138102. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.138102. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Sumesh Keerthiveettil Ramakrishnan¹, Ajithram Arivendan², Kavimani Vijayananth³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Karlovo Namesti 13, Prague 12135, Czech Republic. Electronic address: keerthiveettil.sumesh@fs.cvut.cz.
² Shien Ming Wu School of Intelligent Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore 641021, Tamil Nadu, India.

PMID: 39608532
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.138102

Abstract

In this research, two natural fibers Red Sage Fiber (RSF) and Prosopis Juliflora Fiber (PJF) were extracted using water retting process and chemically treated for improving the properties. It was found with significant improvement in cellulose content for both RSF (60.75 %) and PJF (56.62 %) by NaOH treatment at 2 wt%. The surface treatment in natural fibers improved the tensile strength (TS) of RSF (133.4-161.8 MPa) and PJF (149.9-182.3 MPa). The Crystallinity index (Crl), Crystallite size (CrS) of 74.8 %, 4.3 nm was observed in vegetable waste filler (VWF) after acid and alkali treatments. The high concentration of fiber treatment (6 wt%) could create high porosity in the structure with surface deformations, decreasing the TS of PLA composites. The PJF up to 15 wt% increased the TS of composites from 50.24 to 51.71 MPa. All the combinations with PLA observed better TS than neat PLA. The incorporation of RSF (5-15 wt%) enhances the flexural strength (FS) (75.95-78 MPa). It was clearly observed significant reduction in water absorption property of PLA composites with increase in contact angle from 62° to 84° with treated filler.

Keywords: Cellulose extraction; Mechanical properties; PLA bio composites; Physical and chemical properties.