Water Hyacinth Plant Fibre Characterization

This work is on the specie of the water hyacinth (WH) in the Northern part of Nigeria taken from the lake in Jalingo in the Sahel region of the country. The basic characteristics of the fibres are studied for use in concrete and other allied construction works. They are subjected to physical and chemical tests for the determination of their properties. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy are applied to study the crystalline phases and mineral oxides, and the morphology and structural characteristics of the WHFs. The TGA/DTA and FTIR methods of analysis are applied to the WHFs to identify and investigate the thermal stability and percentage of weight loss on temperature, and the SEM for the morphology and structural characteristics of the WH fibre. The results show that the presence of peaks on the spectra of the cellulose samples corresponds to bands of microcrystalline cellulose. The WH plant fibre has a moisture content of approximately 13.7 %, density of 666.7 kg/m3, specific gravity of 0.86, and water absorption of 1067 %, and the cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin are 14.1, 21.5, 7.1 %, respectively. The WH fibre has a tensile strength of 0.12 MPa, Young Modulus of 7.7 GPa, elongation of 4.8 %, tensile extension at break of 2.89 mm, and energy at break of 1.04 x 10-3 J. The XRD diffractogram characterization shows that the WH fibre is crystalline in nature, while the FT-IR shows the functional group change of each treatment respectively. The thermal decomposition process of the WH fibre resulted in similar TG and DTG curves due to being lignin cellulosic material. These curves showed a distinct DTG peak (cellulose) and a high-temperature tail (lignin). The morphology of WH fibre shows a well-shaped fibril with a rigid lignin structure coated surface with the capacity to hold the liquid contents with good absorbency. The chemical compound compositions of the WH fibre contains Ca, K, Cl, C, Al, Si, Fe, S, Y, Ti, P, Mg, Na, and N.