Chemical Degumming Of Kenyan Sisal Fiber

As the result of greater environmental awareness, the demand for environmentally friendly materials is significantly raised. Consequently, in recent years, many researchers have been devoted to the use of ligno-cellulose fibers such as flax, hemp, ramie or sisal fibers as replacement for Synthetic fibers in polymer composites.In this work, the composition, structure and physiochemical properties of un-degummed decorticated sisal, Sodium hydroxide degummed decorticated sisal and hydrogen peroxide degummed decorticated sisal were investigated. Characterization techniques like Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), were used to elucidate the effects of chemical degumming on the sisal fibers. Taguchi approach was used to obtain optimum chemical degumming parameters.Wet chemical analysis and FT-IR, were used to measure the chemical compounds present in untreated. It was found out that Kenyan sisal fiber is composed of66.4%celullose,18.3%of hemi-cellulose,11.6%lignin,1.5%of was and1.2%of pectin. The FT-IR results of NaOH and Peroxide degummed Sisal fibers showed that all treatments removed non-cellulosic materials from the sisal fiber as confirmed by removal of the peak around1735cm-1, which can be attributed to the presence of the carboxylic ester in pectin and wax and also some peaks reducing in their intensities when compared to the untreated fibers An examination of surface morphology of Sisal fibers carried out using SEM revealed that after degumming all treated fibers got cleaner and smoother surfaces than untreated ones. XRD was carried out to assess modification of the crystallinity of fibers and the results showed Sisal fiber crystallinity increased in all treated fibers from70%to77%. Bundle fiber tensile testing was used to examine the tenacity strength of untreated and treated fibers and it was found that the degumming methods were accompanied by a decrease in the fiber tenacity of all degummed fibers. It can be concluded that indeed the peroxide degumming method can be used in degumming as it showed improved results when comparing it to the traditional alkali method of degumming.