Characterization of natural cellulosic fiber extracted from Grewia damine flowering plant's stem.

Grewia damine is a flowering plant found in India and Sri Lanka. The fiber taken out from the stem bark of G. damine is found to be novel and selected for characterization study. The G. damine stem bark fiber (GDSF) has rich in cellulose contents (57.78 ± 3.56%). Its lower density (1.378 ± 0.036 g/cm3) makes it fit for use in lightweight applications. The weight percentage values of the chemical constituents confirm the use of GDSF for structural applications. Crystallinity index of GDSF was noted as 30.35%. The mechanical properties of GDSF were predicted as 375.6 ± 16.58 MPa tensile strength and 126.2 ± 11.93 GPa modulus of elasticity. The morphological and atomic force microscopy study results revealed that the fiber has rough surface even in its raw form. Hence it can be used to prepare composite specimens with better bonding strength between fiber and polymer. The thermal stability of GDSF was noted as 326 °C. Weibull distribution plots were drawn for validating the physical and tensile property values of GDSF.

Characterization of novel natural cellulosic fiber extracted from the stem of Cissus vitiginea plant.

In this study, a new natural fiber obtained from the stem of Cissus vitiginea has been studied for the first time. Chemical composition results confirmed that the proposed fiber has a rich amount of cellulose (65.43 wt%) and lower quantity of hemicellulose compounds (14.61 wt%),which in turn leads to better mechanical characteristics. Various chemical groups distributed over the fiber surface were predicted and reported with the help of Fourier transform infrared spectroscope and nuclear magnetic response spectroscopy. The crystalline nature of the fiber surface was examined using X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and the crystallinity index value was calculated to be 30.5% with 12.69 nm crystallite size. Morphological study was conducted on the fiber using a scanning electron microscope. The thermal stability of the fiber was found to be 304 °C with 68.72 kJ/mol kinetic activation energy. Hence C. vitiginea fiber can be suggested as reinforcement for the thermoplastic green composite.