A Novel Study On Surface Modification Of Palmyra Fibers For Enhancing Mechanical And Thermal Properties

Natural fiber reinforcing in engineering thermoplastics (Nylon melting point around 230∘C) is challenging, due to the lower degradation temperature (∼180∘C) of lignocellulosic fibers. Further, increasing temperature (beyond 200∘C) results in weakening of its mechanical properties. In this investigation, camphor soot reinforced palmyra fibers (CSRPF) are manufactured by osmosis with the help of design of experiments (DOE) and are examined for different time (4, 8 and 12h), temperature (30∘C, 40∘C and 50∘C) and camphor soot concentrations (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5wt.%) using L9 orthogonal array. The osmosis rate of modified fibers was calculated and tested for their tensile strength as the osmosis rate and tensile strength are the main objective functions. Based on DOE and taguchi-ANOVA analysis, optimal parameters were obtained through main effect plots and Anova results. Further, an optimal combination of parameters for CSRPF was characterized for thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared radiation (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS) to inspect and compare it with neat palmyra fibers. There was considerable improvement in the CSRPF tensile strength about 84Mpa with respect to neat palmyra fibers which is 58MPa. TGA reveals the degradation temperature of neat palmyra fiber is about 225∘C and it is enhanced in case of CSRPF about 265∘C which accounts for 15% enhanced thermal stability. The crystallinity index (CI) of CSRPF was reduced marginally compared to the neat palmyra fibers. FTIR analysis showed the peak drift marginally to the left in CSRPF due to the coating of camphor soot particles. The microstructure of both neat and CSRPF are examined using SEM and EDS which shows that 93.71% carbon was present in the cross section of CSRPF compared to the neat palmyra fiber (62.58%).