Characterisation of Mercerized and Vinyl Tri--Methoxy Silane Treated Banana Fibers and Their Composites by High Density Polyethelene

摘要

The research involved characterization of banana fibers for their properties which included themorphology, chemical analysis, thermal properties, and the effects of treatment on the above.Chapterone covers a background to the research and two contains a review of the published literature relating tothis subject.The literature review was used as the guidance in the thesis in design, analysis, andprojection of the expected trends.The methodology for the experimental work conducted is detailed inchapter three while the results and discussions of the effects of pre-treated banana fibers on theirproperties and the performance of the composites follows in chapter four.This thesis ends with adiscussion on the results including conclusions and recommendations for future work.Data of testsappear in the Appendices.The fiber density testing showed that the treated fibers had higher densitythan untreated ones.X-ray diffraction (XRD) carried out to assess modification of the fiber crystallinityshowed that banana fiber crystallinity index increased in all the treated fibers, thermogravimetricanalysis (TGA) which was used to obtain the activation energies and relative thermal stability of fibersindicated that all treatments improved fibre thermal stability.Single fibre tensile testing that was done toobtain the tensile strength of untreated and treated fibers indicated that the alkali treatment enhanced thetensile strength of the fibers and silane treatment has minimal effect on the fiber tensile properties.

目录

声明

Abstract

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Table of Contents

Chapter 1：INTRODUCTION

1．0 Preface

1．1 Background

1．2 Aims and objectives of the study

Chapter 2：LITERATURE REVIEW

2．1 Banana fiber extraction and characterization

2．1．1 Extraction

2．1．2 Fiber characterization

2．2 Natural fiber structure and its effect on the fiber mechanical properties

2．3 Fiber treatment

2．3．1 Mercerization and coupling reactions

2．3．2 Acetylation

2．3．3 Peroxide treatment and benzoylation

2．3．4 Etherification

2．3．5 Other treatments

2．4 Composites by compression moulding

Chapter 3：METHODOLOGY

3．0 Introduction

3．1 Materials

3．2 NaOH and Silane treatment

3．3 Linear density

3．4 Single fiber tensile strength

3．5 Wet chemical analysis of banana fibers

3．5．1 Wax content

3．5．2 Water soluble Material

3．5．3 Pectin

3．5．4 Hemicellulose

3．5．5 Lignin

3．6 Moisture absorption

3．7 Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM)

3．8 The effect of fiber treatment on the diameter

3．9 Single fiber tensile strength

3．10 Composite processing

3．10．1 Laminate stacking sequence

3．10．2 Tensile properties

3．10．3 Water Uptake

Chapter 4：RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4．1 The effect of treatment on the fiber moisture absorption

4．2 Wet Chemical analysis

4．3 Linear density

4．4 Single Fiber tensile strength

4．5 Scanning Electron Microscope

4．6 FTIR

4．7 Thermo gravimetric Analysis

4．8 X-Ray diffraction

4．9 Composite Properties

4．9．1 Tensile testing

4．9．2 Water absorption

Chapter 5：CONCLUSIONS

5．1 Fiber morphology

5．2 Composite

References

APPENDIX