Fibers stripped of from the bamboo culm by longitudinal cutting are being considered as reinforcement of polymer composites owing to environmental benefits related to their biodegradable and renewable characteristics. The manual cutting process allows bamboo fibers with different diameters to be extracted from the culm. Since a lignocellulosic fiber usually presents tensile strength dependence with its diameter, this possibility was investigated on bamboo fibers by means of the Weibull statistical analysis. It was found that the smaller the fiber diameter, the greater the tensile strength. Fracture observation of ruptured bamboo fibers by scanning electron microscopy, identified possible mechanisms associated with this inverse strength/diameter correlation.
A number of methods are available for characterization of the structural, physical, and chemical properties of natural fibers. Various methods are used for fiber identification like microscopic analysis, solubility, heating and burning technique density, staining etc. End-use property characterization methods often involve use of laboratory techniques which are adapted to simulate actual application as composite reinforcement. One of the techniques used on this kind of studies is the infrared spectroscopy. In fact, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a valuable tool in the determination of functional groups actively interacting within a fiber. In this work, the banana fiber was evaluated by FTIR to reveal these functional groups and compare to similar works on other different types of banana fibers.
Polymer matrix composites have been applied in components such as helmets and shielding for which toughness is a major requirement. A natural fiber presents interfacial characteristics with polymeric matrices that favor a high impact energy absorption by the composite structure. The objective of this work was then to assess the Izod impact resistance of polymeric composites reinforced with different amounts, up to 30% in volume, of a promising high strength natural fiber, the banana fiber. The results showed a remarkable increase in the notch toughness with the amount of incorporated banana fibers. This can be attributed to a preferential debonding of the fiber/matrix interface, which contributes to an elevated absorbed energy.
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