Palm leaf sheath fiber extraction, bleaching, softening and characterization of effect of softening on longitudinal view, tensile strength and elongation of the fiber

Abstract

Sheath of Palm tree indigenous to Ethiopia was used to extract fiber by chemical degumming using 80 % sodium hydroxide; bleached, softened and characterized the physical properties of the extracted fibers before and after softening. The extracted fibers were subjected to bleaching using 30% H2O2 bleaching agent to remove the reddish yellow color of the extracted. By mass; 203.4g of decorticated dried palm tree sheath was subjected to chemical degumming. Degumming of the raw decorticated palm sheath with 20% sodium hydroxide solution and 5% wetting agent was carried out. The degumming process was incubated at the temperature 120˚C for 2hours. To remove residual gummy substances which are already dissolved and left on the fibers; the fibers were washed by warm water and dried. It's found that 28.87% degummed fiber was extracted. After bleaching the degummed fibers; the fibers were washed to remove residual H2O2 from the fibers. The bleached fibers were treated by silicone emulsion to soften the fibers. Finally the fibers were dried and their Characteristics (before and after softening); Longitudinal view, Tensile strength at break and Elongation at break characterized. Also moisture regain (R %) and moisture content (W %) of the softened fibers were characterized and found as 12.65 and 11.23% respectively.