Thermal properties of natural fibres extracted from Palmyra sprouts

Effect of fibre extraction from Palmyra sprouts by manual method and water retting process has been studied. Mechanical and chemical properties of the fibres have been studied. Cellulose, lignin, ash and wax contents present in both manual and water retted palmyra sprout fibre are found to be 61.72% & 55.63%, 23.25 % & 30.66%, 5.15 % & 3.61 % and 0.66% & 0.84% respectively. The low composition of ash provides light-weight and stiffness to the fibres. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that the residual mass of water retted fibre shows is 26.77% at 498.2ºC and that of manual retted fibre is 21.31% at 498.2ºC. The average single fibre strength values for the water and manual retted samples are 2.34 N and 4 N respectively, with a standard deviation of 0.642 N and 1.81 N respectively. In this study, thermal properties are also analyzed.