Sunteți pe pagina 1din 5

Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research

Vol. 21, September 1996, pp. 205-209

Chemical degumming and fibre characteristics of ramie at different stages


of crop growth
P K Kundu, (Mrs) R Sarmah & C R Sarkar"
Department ofBiochemistry & Agricultural Chemistry, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat 785 013, Assam, India
Received 30 August 1995; revised received & accepted 26 February 1996

The effect of three selected chemical degumming treatments on decorticated matured and over-
matured ramie fibres has been studied. All the three treatments have been found to be satisfactory,
less time consuming, inexpensive and remove gum contents effectively to below 6%, which is a req-
uisite for textile use. The extent of degumming was judged by chemical estimation of gums and pec-
tins, fibre tensile strength and surface features. IR spectral study revealed that the degummed and
bleached ramie comprised only cellulosic materials. The methods are more effective on matured ra-
mie.

Keywords:Degumming, Fibre characteristics, Gums, Pectins, Ramie, Tensile strength

1 Introduction. ~ tured sample contained 30.1 and 14% gum and


Ramie fibre [Boehmena nivea (L) Gaud] is the pectin respectively.
strongest of all natural fibres in the world, though The gum and pectin contents were estimated
not much popular in textile industry because of according to the methods developed by Dasgupta
the difficulty in extraction. Degumming is done to et al.4 and Ruckll respectively.
remove gums and pectins (about 19-30%) from About.20-25 g of decorticated oven-dried fi-
the decorticated fibres 1 either by chemical or by bres of about 30 cm length were treated with
microbial means. The gums, principally composed 0.2% aluminium sulphate for 6-8 h at room tem-
of arabans and xylans (hemicelluloses), are quite perature, washed thoroughly and then subjected
soluble in alkaline solutions2• For textile purposes, to three selected degumming treatments (Table 1).
only 6% residual gum is recommended which Each treatment was carried out in a water bath at
makes the filaments well separated and fibre char- 94°-96°C for two h. The material-to-liquor ratio
acteristics fully realized3.4. To remove gum con- and the pH were maintained at 1:5 (20 g of de-
tents, various chemical methods have been em- corticated fibres per 100 ml of degumming solu-
ployed by several workers4-7• Microbial degumm- tion) and 10-10.5 respectively. After degumming,
ing of ramie has also been tried8-10 but the chemi- the fibres were washed properly with distilled wa~
cal degumming process is preferred because of
less time required.
Table I-Chemical composition of degumming solutions
The present investigation was aimed at improv- selected and their degumming efficiency
ing the existing chemical degumming methods and
Degumming Chemical composition of Percentage of
applying them successfully on ramie crop at dif- treatment degumming solution gum removal
ferent stages of growth, i.e. matured and over-ma- g/100 ml
tured. D-I NaOH-1.0 80.9
NaCI-1.5
2 Materials and Methods EDTA-0.05
The decorticated ramie materials were collected
Na2S03-0.5
at two stages of crop growth, i.e. 70 days old (ma- NaOH-1.0
NaOH-1.0 90.9
82.5
D-II
tured) and 90 days old (over-matured). The ma-
Na2S03-1.0
BDTA-O.OS
tured sample contained 26.6 smd 16% gum andD-ID
pectin (Ca-pectate) respectively and the over-ma-

'To whom all the correspondence should be addressed.


206 INDIAN 1. FIBRE TEXT. RES., SEPTEMBER 1996

ter, scoured with 2% acetic acid and again H202 was used as bleaching agent because it
washed thorougWy with distilled water to remove has mild delignification effect and the fibres retain
any acid stains from fibres. The washed fibre adequate strength in comparison to that in cWo-
samples were subjected to bleaching with 2% rine bleach. It also helps in better cleaning and se-
H202 and 0.1% Tween-80 surfactant (v/v) for 1 h paration of ultimates, thereby improving the fibre
in a water bath maintained at 94°C, keeping the quality 14.The pH was maintained between 6 and
material-to-liquor ratio at 1:5 and pH at 6-7. Af- 7 as the higher pH in bleaching solution causes
ter bleaching, the ramie fibres were washed prop- deposits 15. The Tween-80, a non-ionic surfactant,
erly with distilled water, air dried and then enhances the bleaching effect ofH202 on fibrel6•
combed to give uniformity in length. The gum and pectin contents of ramie fibres
The degummed and bleached fibres were sub- obtained after the three degumming treatments
jected to quality tests to evaluate the best quality are shown in Table 2. It is observed that all the
fibre resulting from various chemical treatments. degumming treatments successfully reduce gum
The tensile strength of the fibres was measured contents to below 6%. The D-III treatment is the
on a stelometer by taking a bundle of fibres (300 most efficient as it removes about 90% gums in
mg weight) of 12.5 cm length. The values were both matured and over-matured ramie samples. It
calculated using the following equationl2: is further observed that more the gum content,
more is the percentage of gum removal. Thus, all
Tensile strength Breaking load x Specimen length the degummed ramie samples can be suitably
(gltex) Specimen mass used for textile purposes4, as they contain less
than 6% gum content.
The surface features of degummed and Table 3 shows that higher tensile strength (28-
bleached ramie fibres were examined by Joel-35 31 gltex) is obtained from the matured ramie
CF scanning electron microscope (SEM) with a crop than that from over-matured one. The lower
beam of 10 kY. For SEM study, the fibres were
coated with a thin layer of gold-palladium alloy Table 2-Gum and pectin (Ca-pectate) contents of
using a sputter coater. degummed ramie at different stages of crop growth
Gum and pectin contents of degummed sam- Stage of crop Degumming Guma Ca- Percentagea
ples were determined to access the extent of suc- growth treatment % pectatea of gum
% removal
cessful degumming process. The infrared spectra
Matured D-I 5.2 4.1 80.4
of unprocessed (undegummed) and processed (de-
(70 days old) D-II 5.0 3.0 81.2
gummed and bleached) ramie fibres were also re-
corded to find out the efficiency of degumming D-III 2.7 2.3 90.0
Over-matured D-I 5.6 3.4 81.4
and bleaching treatments. The IR spectra were
taken in the range 4000-800 cm - I. (90 days old) D-II 4.9 3.5 83.7
D-III 2.5 1.2 91:8
3 Results and Discussion aEach component was estimated thrice and the average value
The chemical compositions of the degumming is reported.
solutions used in three selected treatments (D-I-
D-III) are shown in Table 1. Pretreatment with Table 3-Average breaking load and tensile strength of
0.2% aluminium sulphate was done to soften the degumrned ramie fibres at different stages of crop growth
fibre in order to increase its accessibility for Stage of Degumming Average break- Tensile
NaOH5• The 1% NaOH, used as standard con- crop growth treatment ing load strengtha
centration4, causes degumming and swelling of the kg g/tex
fibre which makes the fibre to separate from the Matured D-I 75.6 30.1
(70 days old) D-II 72.0 30.0
cementing matrix13• The sodium sulphite (Na2S03)
in degumming solution acts as a reducing agent D-III 71.0 28.8
Over-matured D-I 62.5 26.0
which improves the colour and fineness of the fi-
(90 days old) D-II 60.0 25.2
bre in presence of hot alkali4.6. The NaCl present
in D-I degumming solution acts as an ionic pene- D-III 58.7 24.4
trant. Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), a Control Only 85.2 35.5
chelating agent present in D-I and D-II, causes (raw ramie) decorticated

partial loss of pectin from fibres by chelating aThe tensile strength test was carried out five times for each
Ca2 + and Mg2 + and thereby enhancing the for- treatment and the average value is reported.
mation of finer filaments.

I I I I I' "1'1"\ I 11'1'''' I!'


KUNDU et al.: CHEMICAL DEGUMMING AND FIBRE CHARACTERISTICS OF RAMIE 207

breaking load and tensile strength of over-ma- ones. The loss in tensile strength may be attribut-
tured ramie fibres may be due to the poor forma- ed to the removal of binding materials (gums and
tion of cellulosic components at this stagel? and pectins) in the cells.
their deformation due to heat treatments. Thus, to The surface feature of degummed and bleached
obtain quality fibre of high tensile strength, the ra- ramie fibres was studied to ascertain the extent of
mie crop should be harvested when it is around damage caused by different chemicals used in the
70 days old. The tensile strength of raw decorti- degumming solution. Fig. 1 shows the SEM
cated ramie was higher than that of alkali-treated photographs of unprocessed and processed ramie

Fig. I-SEM photomicrograph of decorticated ramie (a),


matured ramie degummed for 2 h with D-I (b) and D-III (c),
and over-matured ramie degummed for 2 h with D-I (d) and
D-III (e)
208 INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., SEPrEMBER 1996

fibres. In Fig. la, the undegummed fihrillar struc- the characteristic peaks representing gum in ramie
ture is covered with structural polysaccharide are absent in Fig. 2b. The peak at 1740 cm- 1,
components. As a result, the fibrillar structure is characteristic of the carbonyl group18 of uronic
not clear and visible. Fig. 1b shows fibril align- acid (a constituent of hemicellulose), is present in
ment parallel and straight with no surface depo- the spectrum of unprocessed ramie (Fig. 2a), but
sits. This might be due to 80.4% gum removal absent in Fig. 2b. Other characteristic peak for
and also presence of EDTA in the degumming so- galactan19at 925-920 cm - 1, though prominent in
lution. Fig. lc shows some amount of surface da- Fig. 2a, is missing in Fig. 2b. Only those peaks
mage which may be due to high concentration of characteristics of cellulose2o-23, viz. 3500-3000
Na2S03 used during degumming and causing 90% cm-\ 1375-1370 cm-1 and 1060 cm-1 are much
gum removal. Fig. Id shows distinct nodes with prominent in the spectrum of processed ramie, in-
smooth surface features and the fibrillar struc- dicating that ramie fibre is chemically composed
tures parallely aligned with nodes at regular inter- of pure cellulose. IR spectral study thus clearly in-
vals.. A little surface damage near the node may dicates the efficiency of the degumming method
be due to the fixation of the sample. Fig. Ie used.
shows the single fibrillar structure with surface
damage which may be due to the high concentra- 4 Conclusion
tion of Na2S03 used in D-ill treatment. The rela- The above studies show that the selected de-
tive amount of incrustations and convolutions gumming treatments can be used successfully and
seen may be due to the removal of non-cellulosic economically in terms of chemicals, time and
and cellulosic components from the fibre surface. amount of fibre samples (20-25 g of decorticated
It may be concluded from above that the use of ramie per 100 ml degumming solution). After de-
EDTA causes better separation of filaments due gumming with these methods, matured ramie
to its chelating action on cementing material16• shows higher tensile strength (28-31 g/tex) than
Though the D-ill degumming treatment is much the over-matured one. Thus, to obtain a good
efficient in removing gums, it causes surface da- quality fibre of higher tensile strength only ma-
mage due to high concentration of Na2S03 in the tured ramie should be taken for processing. The
degumming solution which also resulted in lower SEM study revealed surface damage of ramie fi-
tensile strength. bre when treated with D-ill. Hence, only the de-
Fig. 2 shows the IR spectra of both unpro- gumming treatments D-I and D-ll are suggested
cessed and processed (degummed with D-I) ramie for commercial purposes.
fibres. The IR spectral data for unprocessed ma-
tured ramie was reported by Kundu et alY. All Acknowledgement
The authors are thankful to Dr S N Choudhury
for providing ramie fibres and to Dr C N Saikia
for recording IR spectra. They acknowledge the
help of Jute Technological Research Laboratories,
Calcutta in tensile strength measurements. One of
the authors (PKK) is thankful to ICAR, New
20 Delhi, for providing a junior research fellowship.
•• 0
••; j,OOO 3500 3000 2500 2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 aoo References
~ 40
~
•... 35
I ~ (bl 1 Dasgupta P C, Sen K & Sen S K, Annual report (Jute
i
'" 30
Technological Research Laboratories,
9-11.
Calcutta), 1966,
z..
~ 25 2 Dempsey J M, Ramie-In fibre crops (University of Flori-
20 da Press, Gainesville), 1975, Chap. 3, 90-125.
3 Chakravarty A C, Sen S K & Dasgupta P C, J Text Assoc
15 (India), 33(2) (1972) 73.
10 4 Dasgupta P C, Sen K & Sen S K, Cellul Chem Techno~
10 (1976) 285-291.
5 Luniak B, Text Quarterly,4 (April 1954 ) 92.
6 KunduB C, Sci Cult, 23(9) (1958) 461.
4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 laoo 1SOO1400 1200 1000 100 500 50
FREQUENCY, cm-l 7 HoeferT, Melliand Textilber,47(6) (1966) 615.
8 Kundu A& Roy AB, Jute Bul~ 25(5) (1962) 150.
Fig. 2-Infrared spectra of (a) unprocessed and (b) processed 9 Paul N B & Bhattacharyya S K, J Text Inst, 70(12) (1979)
ramie fibres 512.

, I I I II I I·j , I
'I!I 'I"I 1" 'r
KUNDD et aL: CHEMICAL DEGUMMING AND FIBRE CHARACfERlSTICS OF RAMIE 209

10 Gurucharanam K & Despande K S, Indian Phytopatho~ 17 Kundu P K, Sarmah R & Sarkar C R, Indian J Fibre Text
39(3) (1986) 385. Res, 20(3) (1995) 165.
11 Ruck J A, Chemical methods for a1lillysis of fruits and
18 Mukherjee A C & Mukhopadhyay D, Text Res J, 53
vegetables (Canada Dept. Agric. Pub!.), 1965, 1-46.
12 Booth J E, Principles of textile testing (autterworth & Co. (1983)473.
Ltd, London), 1968,382. 21 Tsuboi M, J Polym Sc~ 25 (1957) 159.
13 Dasgupta P C, Sen S K, Sengupta P & Ghosh K L, Annu- 20 MarrinanHJ & MannJ,] Polym Sc~ 21 (1956) 301-311.
al report (Jute Technological Research Laboratories, Cal-
cutta), 1977,30. 19 Rochas C, Lahaya M & Yaphe W, Bot Mar, 29 (1986)
335.
14 Rahman M M M, J Text Inst, 69 (1978) 287.
15 Guha Roy T K, Mukhopadhyay A K & Mukherjee A K, 22 Liang C Y & Marchessault R M, J Polym Sc~ 37 (1959)
Text ResJ, 54 (1984) 874. 385-395.
16 Chakrabarti S K, Ghosh S, Kundu A B & Ghosh B L, In- 23 Marchessault R M & Liang C Y, J Polym Sci, 43 (1960)
dian J Fibre Text Res, 16 (1991) 154. 71-84.

S-ar putea să vă placă și