Morphological, spectroscopic, and thermal properties of alkali-treated and chemically modifed oil palm empty fruit bunch fibers and oil palm frond fibers: A comparative study

The effect on morphological, spectroscopic, and thermal properties of oil palm empty fruit bunch fibers (OPEFB fibers) and oil palm frond fibers (OPF fibers) following treatment and modification with sodium hydroxide and succinic anhydride, respectively, were investigated. The evidence of treatment was observed by weight gain and FT-IR. The effect of the treatment upon the fiber surfaces was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which indicated that succinic anhydride treatment led to smoother surfaces as compared to the sodium hydroxide. The thermal degradation was carried out by thermal gravimetric analysis, which exhibited a different degree of mass loss due to different treatments.