Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

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Open Access
Thermal characteristics of batch-processed biodegradable cellulosic fibres
(Int. J. Microstructure and Materials Properties, 2015) Akpan, E.I.; Adeosun, S.O.; Lawal, G.I.; Balogun, S.A.; Chen, X.D.
Thermal characteristics of processed macro-fibres from five agricultural wastes have been studied. Cellulosic fibres for composite applications are extracted from groundnut shell, coconut shell, rice husk, palm bunch and palm stalk using two paths (M1 and M2) and characterised for improvement in thermal behaviour. Thermal degradation and stability of the processed fibres are characterised using thermo gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Results show that M2-treated fibres generally possess higher heats of dehydration than M1-treated fibres and this is an indication of superior thermal behaviour of M2-treated fibres. Differential thermal gravimetry curves show that M2-processed fibres contain higher percentage of cellulose content than M1, which shows the removal of lignin and hemicellulose during degradation. Decomposition activation energy of fibres confirms that M1 fibres require higher activation energy for decomposition than M2. Higher degradation temperature is noted for M1-treated fibres than M2-treated fibres.