Effect of Chemical Treatment on Physical and Mechanical properties of Coconut Fibre

Abstract

Natural fibre has potential candidate of new eco friendly, sustainable recourses to reduce dependency on conventional synthetic material. Over the past few years among the different kinds of vegetable fibres, coconut fibre has seen limited utilization. The current study improves our understanding of how chemical treatment could optimize natural fibres for innovative uses or advanced application especially in the creation of sustainable materials. The impact of chemical treatments on the physical and mechanical properties of coconut fibres is investigated in this study. The study can be divided into three phases, preparation of materials, treatment and testing of coconut fibre. For the first pre-trial fibre is treated with different chemicals like 10% to 15% concentration of NaOH and NaOCL solutions for 3 hours. After being immersed in NaOH solutions and treated with NaOCL solutions, the fibres were dried. The second treatment is coconut fibre soaked in Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) solution with a concentration of 18% for temp of 90° c time of 1 hour. After the treatment the fibre is dried in atmosphere for 24 hours. Raw coconut fibre and the second chemically treated fibres were tested and evaluated for different physical and mechanical properties. The fibre surface morphology was examined using microscopic method. The result shows that mechanical strength of fibre increase slightly after the second treatment however the fibre surface becomes rough and porous.