Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Investigation of chemical, thermal and morphological properties

of untreated and NaOH treated banana fiber
A. Parre a,⇑, B. Karthikeyan a, A. Balaji b, R. Udhayasankar a
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu 608002, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, A.V.C College of Engineering, Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Banana leaf fibers were chemically treated with 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9% NaOH, further the effect of the same
Received 13 May 2019 on the fiber properties was analysed. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) analysis was
Received in revised form 16 June 2019 used to identify the chemical compounds of untreated and NaOH treated fibers. The morphological study
Accepted 21 June 2019
on untreated and NaOH treated fibers by Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) divulge the fact of the
Available online xxxx
impurities on the untreated fiber surface and removal of the same on treated fibers. Moreover, Thermo
Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) test was also carried out to perceive the thermal stability of untreated and
Keywords:
NaOH treated fiber.
Natural fiber
Banana fiber
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Chemical treatment Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International
Fourier transform infrared spectrometry Conference on Materials Engineering and Characterization 2019.
(FTIR)
Thermal properties

1. Introduction improvement in tensile strength, 14% in flexural strength and 30%

in impact strength had been found. SEM observations on the frac-
The natural leaf fibers nowadays play a vital role as reinforce- ture surface of composites showed that the surface modification
ment in biocomposites due to their significant properties like of the fiber occurred and improved fiber–matrix adhesion. Udhaya-
biodegradability, non-toxicity, ability to recycle and lightweight sankar et al. [9] chemically modified the coconut partials and found
[1–3]. The most important components of natural fibers are hemi- that the NaOH treatment enhanced the thermal and mechanical
celluloses, cellulose, lignin, pectin’s and waxes [4]. The reinforcing properties. The morphological study was also made to examine
efficiency of natural fiber is related to the nature of cellulose and the structural changes.
it’s crystalline [5]. The natural fibers, in general, are available in A study by Reis et al. investigated about the utilization of biofi-
the leaf, fruits, seeds, grasses, silk, wood, bast and stems of the bers, such as piassava (Attalea Funifera Mart) scraps from broom
plants [6]. industry, as strengthening of natural polymer based mortars. Hence
Many researcher works are being carried out with the natural the outcomes revealed that the castor oil polymer mortars reinforced
fibers like coir, bamboo, banana, flax, jute, sun hemp, kenaf, ramie, with piassava shows a comparable property to epoxy based polymers
bagasse, straw, roselle, rice husk, grass, raphia, pineapple leaf fibers mortars. Deliberated by demonstrating that it is an incredible bio-
etc. Joshi et al. [7] studied the reasons why natural fiber composites composite elective [10]. Barreto et al. studied the effect of treatment
are environmentally superior to glass fiber reinforced composites. of NaOH with dwarf green coir fibres recommended 10% of NaoH.
The reasons are natural fiber production has lower environmental Outcomes were better bond with the system, exposure of intrafibril-
impact compared to glass fiber production. Cao et al. [8] investi- lar holes yielding better interface properties [11]. Balaji et al. [12]
gated biodegradable composites reinforced with bagasse fiber compared the untreated and NaOH treated bagasse fibers cardanol
before and after alkali treatments were prepared and mechanical composites. It was found that the chemical treatment improved
properties were investigated. Composites of 1% NaOH solution trea- the tensile, impact and thermal strengths of the bagasse fiber car-
ted fibers showed maximum improvement. Approximately 13% danol composites to a significant amount.
Based on the above literature, an effort is made in this paper to
⇑ Corresponding author at: Instructor Special Grade, Dept. of Mechanical examine the properties of banana leaf fibers untreated and NaOH
Engineering, Annamalai University, 608002, India. Mobile: +91 7598003311. treatment and to initiate them as a natural reinforcement to the
E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Parre). composites.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.655
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Materials Engineering and Characterization 2019.

Please cite this article as: A. Parre, B. Karthikeyan, A. Balaji et al., Investigation of chemical, thermal and morphological properties of untreated and NaOH
treated banana fiber, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.655
2 A. Parre et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

2. Materials and experiments [13,14]. Then the banana fibers were dried for two days under sun-
light and kept in hot air oven at 90–100 °C for 24 h to remove any
2.1. Materials moisture contents [15,16]. The untreated and treated NaOH
banana leaf fibers are shown in Fig. 1a–f.
The banana fiber purchased from Sri Achu Fibres shop at Erode,
Tamil Nadu, India. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) was procured from
2.3. Composite characterizations
Indian Scientific Solution (Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India).
FTIR measurements were performed in a Bruker IFS 66 infra-red
2.2. NaOH treatment of banana fibers spectrophotometer using the KBr pellet technique. Each spectrum
was recorded over 20 scans, in the range from 4000 to 400 cm 1
The dried banana leaf fibers were separately immersed in 1, 3, 5, with a resolution of 4 cm 1 from Department of chemistry, Anna-
7, and 9% NaOH (Relative to banana fiber weight %) for 24 h at malai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamilnadu, India.
normal room temperature. The fibers were then cleansed with Thermogravimetry (TGA) was carried out NETZSCH STA 449F3
distilled water to remove any NaOH particles on the fiber surface thermo gravimetric analyzer in order to compare the thermal

Fig. 1. Untreated and 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9% NaOH treated banana fiber.

Please cite this article as: A. Parre, B. Karthikeyan, A. Balaji et al., Investigation of chemical, thermal and morphological properties of untreated and NaOH
treated banana fiber, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.655
 A. Parre et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

stability and thermal degradation of untreated and treated banana

fiber. Samples of each 10 mg of fibers heated from 25 to 600 °C at
9% NaOH Treated
the rate of 5 °C/min in TGA under nitrogen atmosphere by purging
50 ml gas/min from Department of physics, Annamalai University, 7% NaOH Treated

Transmittance (%)
Annamalai Nagar, Tamilnadu, India. Fig. 2 shown in Thermo gravi-
metric analyzer (NETZSCH-STA 449 F3 JUPITER). 5% NaOH Treated
The SEM of the untreated and NaOH treated banana fiber were
analyzed using a scanning electron microscopy (JEOL JSM 6610 LV), 3% NaOH Treated
at Department of Physics, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar,
Tamil Nadu, India. The samples were coated layer of gold before
scanning made in order to increase the sample conductivity and
1% NaOH Treated
also to avoid electrostatic charging during sample examination.
Fig. 3 show in Scanning electron microscope (SEM-JEOL JSM Untreated
6610LV)

3. Results and discussion

3.1. FTIR analyses of untreated and treated banana fiber

4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500
FTIR analysis was done for the raw, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9% alkali trea- -1
ted Banana fibers and the chemical compounds were identified. Wavenumber (cm )
FTIR spectra of the untreated and NaOH treated Banana fibers are
Fig. 4. FTIR spectra of untreated and treated banana fibers.
presented in Fig. 4. Both untreated and treated fibers presented

the typical vibration bands of the components mainly correspond-

ing to cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. All vibrations are sum-
marized in Table 1. Spectra of the untreated and treated fibers
showed the presence of a strong absorption band for intermolecu-
lar bonded hydroxyl (O–H) groups at around 3500–3300 cm 1. The
appearance of very intense and broad absorption was a clear indi-
cation of many hydroxyl groups in the fiber [17]. The peak at 2950–
2921 cm 1 has been assigned to the C–H stretching vibration from
the –CH2 group of cellulose and hemicellulose [18].
The peaks at 2850–2800 cm 1 indicated CH2 Symmetric
Stretching compound (Cellulose & hemicellulose). The close exam-
ination intensity bands around 1744 cm 1 and 1244 cm 1 were
associated with hemicellulose and Lignin [19]. The band around
1638.08 cm 1 indicated the presence of C@O stretch of acetyl
group of hemicellulose [20]. The peaks located at around 1375–
1390 cm 1 in the spectrum of fiber C–H symmetrical deformation
cellulose stretching [21].
In the 1320–1340 cm 1 region many absorption peaks were
Fig. 2. Thermo gravimetric analyzer (NETZSCH-STA 449 F3 JUPITER). noticed (O–H in-plane bending) whose intensities varied from
low and moderate to high. The peaks at 1000–1200 cm 1 indicated
C–O–C Asymmetrical stretching (cellulose & hemicellulose) and C–
O/C–C Stretching vibration [20]. Nam et al. studied, O–H stretching
of hydrogen bond network which becomes less intense resulting in
alkali treatment [22]. Such decrease is due to the breaking of
hydrogen bond between O–H groups of cellulose and hemi-
cellulose molecules [23]. It can be summarized that treatment with
alkali had removed most of the lignin and hemicelluloses compo-
nents. Further, the treatment had changed the hydrophilic nature
of the fibre to hydrophobic nature [24].

3.2. Morphological characterization of fibers

The SEM assessments were applied for the untreated and NaOH
treated banana fibers characterizations. In untreated banana fibers
shown in Fig. 5(a) one can see a usual structure due to the presence
of chemical compounds like lignin, cellulose, hemicelluloses and
wax, where these components confer mechanical and thermal
strength to the biocomposite [25]. After NaOH treatment of banana
using 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9% NaOH, the abovementioned components were
Fig. 3. Scanning electron microscope (SEM-JEOL JSM 6610LV). removed partially. The presence of a few supplementary layers

Please cite this article as: A. Parre, B. Karthikeyan, A. Balaji et al., Investigation of chemical, thermal and morphological properties of untreated and NaOH
treated banana fiber, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.655
4 A. Parre et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

(Fig. 5(b–f)) in the banana fibers may be due to the modification on surface was limited irregular bands, not smooth and nodes. In gen-
the outside. As shown, the untreated banana fiber had noticeable eral, the nodes and bands the surface possibly will be helpful for
pores on the surface than the NaOH treated fibers. The treated fiber the thermal and mechanical properties, if there are successful

Table 1
Chemical composition of untreated and treated banana fibers.
1
S. Wave Number cm
No
Untreated 1% NaOH 3% NaOH 5% NaOH 7% NaOH 9% NaOH Functional Groups
treated treated treated treated treated
1. 3401 3420 3419 3420 3420 3421 O–H Stretching (cellulose & hemicellulose)
2. 2921 2921 2921 2920 2920 2922 C–H Stretching (cellulose & hemicellulose)
3. 2851 2853 2851 2851 2851 2852 CH2 Symmetric Stretching (cellulose & hemicellulose)
4. 1744 – – – – – C@O Stretching of (hemicellulose)
5. 1639 1637 1638 1638 1638 1637 C@O Stretching of (hemicellulose)
6. 1383 1383 1388 1383 1383 1383 C–H symmetrical deformation cellulose
7. 1323 1324 1323 1321 1321 1321 O–H in-plane bending
8. 1244 – – – – – C@O Stretching of (hemicellulose)
9. 1157 1157 1156 1156 1156 1060 C–O–C Asymmetrical stretching (cellulose &
hemicellulose)
10. 1059 1057 1053 1033 1033 – C–O/C–C Stretching vibration

Fig. 5. SEM Image of Untreated and 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9% NaOH treated banana fiber.

Please cite this article as: A. Parre, B. Karthikeyan, A. Balaji et al., Investigation of chemical, thermal and morphological properties of untreated and NaOH
treated banana fiber, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.655
 A. Parre et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 5

110 banana fibers. Also a strong hydrogen bond was noticed on trea-
ted fibers, which facilitated better mechanical properties to the
100
fiber.
90
o SEM observation revealed the visual evidence that the surface
impurities were removed from the fibers on NaOH treatment.
80 It was also visualized that the surface area of the NaOH treated
fibers improved and this might lead to better interfacial charac-
Weight (%)

70
teristics of the fibers.
60
o NaOH treatment was found to improve the thermal resistance
Untreated
of banana fibers due the removal of the waxy layers and other
1% NaOH Treated impurities from the surface.
50
3% NaOH Treated o Indeed the optimal NaOH concentration was reported at 5% in
40 5% NaOH Treated terms of the favored better to the banana fibers than the raw,
7% NaOH Treated 1%, 3%, 7% and 9%, and, this is mainly due to the reduction of
30
9% NaOH Treated the amorphous parts of the fibers.
20
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treated banana fiber, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.655
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Please cite this article as: A. Parre, B. Karthikeyan, A. Balaji et al., Investigation of chemical, thermal and morphological properties of untreated and NaOH
treated banana fiber, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.655