4th Conference on Natural Fibre Composites, Rome 17-18 October 2013

Tensile properties of treated and untreated borassus ( Borassus flabellifer) fibres for composites production Kristomus Boimau1, a and Carlo Santulli2,b
1

F Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Facult of Science and Engineering

2

!ni"ersit of #usa Cendana, Kupang $ East #usa %enggara $ &ndonesia Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Materials and En"ironment email- boimau.mesinunc/ ahoo.com, bc.santulli/alice.it Sapien'a !ni"ersit( di )oma, "ia Eudossiana 1*, ++1*, )oma, &tal
a

1. General introduction Palmyra palm ( orassus flabellifer) (Figure 1) fruit fibres are known to have considerably high cellulose content, and have therefore being used have the properties to be used as an alternative raw material of cellulosic pulps for papermaking [1] !his characteristic, together with their richness in cellulose and holocellulose, suggested the possibility to use these fibres for composite reinforcement ["] !his study aims to determine the tensile properties of #orassus flabellifer palm fruit fibres treated with alkali (concentration of $ and 1%& and variations in treatment time soaking for ", ', ( and ) hours) 2. Materials and testing Fibres used in this research are obtained by peeling off the outer skin from the seed shoots and then drying them Further alkaline treatment process by placing them in water for ", ', (, and ) hours in a solution of *a+, with a concentration of $ and 1%&, and then rinsed with water until the p, is neutral -fter fibres were dried in a space protected from light, and subse.uently dried at a temperature of 1%$/0 in an oven 1ingle fibre tensile test specimens were prepared according to standard -1!2 34456 with a $% mm grip length Prior to tensile testing, first fibre diameter was measured using optical microscopy, while the fibre surface topography was observed by 172 3. Results and discussion From the results of 172 it was clear that the surface of the fibres after treatment is cleaner and smoother than untreated fibres 8n particular, fibres alkali treatment, as can be observed in Figure ", produces a better e9posure of the cellulose structural matter in the fibre, a factor from which a particular suitability to resin impregnation can be inferred !he test results showed that the fibres sub:ected to soaking had a reduction of tensile strength in the order of "%& at saturation, which is reached after around 1% days (Figure 4) 1oaked fibres sub:ected to alkali treatment in $& *a+, for ' hours offered the highest tensile strength References [1] ; 1ridach, 1ongklanakarin < 1ci !echnol 4" ("), "%1%, "%1="%$ ["] > ?amanaiah, - @ ?atna Prasad, > ,ema 0handra ?eddy, < 2ater 7nviron 1ci 4 (4) ("%1") 45'=45)

4th Conference on Natural Fibre Composites, Rome 17-18 October 2013

Fi!ure 1 A Palmyra trees

Fi!ure 2 A 172 micrograph of untreated #orassus fibre (left) and of #orassus fibre treated with $& sodium hydro9ide for ' hours (right)

Figure 4 3ecrease in tensile strength of #orassus fibres with water soaking