Development of Dioscorea alata stem fibers as eco-friendly reinforcement for composite materials

The use of natural fibers instead of synthetic fibers has become a hot topic in the reinforced composite manufacturing industry. However, there are considerable differences in the mechanical properties of natural fibers cited in the literature. These differences could be due to the prevalent use of monothetic analysis. In this paper, the use of a simplified Taguchi technique in novel Dioscorea alata stems fiber processing is proposed to allow for simultaneous evaluation of control parameters such as treatment type, harvest condition, gauge length and chemical treatment temperature to determine the optimal conditions for fiber tensile properties. These fibers were extracted from the stem by means of water retting method before chemical treatment. The tensile properties were determined as per ASTM D3822/D3822M-14. Non-destructive examinations were employed to look into the chemical make-up, thermal, crystalline and morphological characteristics of the fibers. The test results showed an optimum tensile strength of 151 MPa and tensile modulus of 5709.5 MPa. Density was 0.4 g/cm³ while cellulose, lignin, moisture, hemicellulose and ash contents were 13.1 %, 10.3 %, 9.7 %, 5.0 % and 8.2 % respectively. The treated fibers were thermally stable till 320 °C. The properties of Dioscorea alata stem fiber (DASF) were found to be promising when compared to existing natural fibers, making it a viable candidate for composite material reinforcement.