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Phoenix sp. fiber-reinforced epoxy composites have been manufactured using compression molding technique. The effect of reinforcement volume content (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%) and size (300 mm particles, 10 mm, 20 mm, and 30 mm fibers) on quasi-static and dynamic mechanical properties was investigated. Moreover, the water absorption properties of composites were analyzed at different environmental conditions (10 C, 30 C, and 60 C). For each reinforcement size, composites loaded with 40% in volume show highest tensile and flexural properties. Furthermore, composites with 300 mm particles present the best impact properties and the lowest water absorption, regardless of the environmental condition. The dynamic mechanical properties of the composites loaded with 40% in volume were analyzed by varying the reinforcement size and the load frequency (i.e., 0.5 Hz, 1 Hz, 2 Hz, 5 Hz, and 10 Hz). It was found that the glass transition temperature of short fiber-reinforced composites is higher than that of the composite loaded with particles.

First time, this study reports the effect of benzoyl chloride (BC), potassium permanganate (PP), and stearic acid (SA) treatments on the surface morphology, physical, chemical, structural, mechanical, and thermal properties of cellulosic fiber obtained from date palm plant petioles. Morphology analysis displayed the existence of protrusions on treated fiber surface, which stimulates the mechanical interlocking between the fiber and polymer matrix. Highest cellulose (67.22%) and lowest hemicellulose (9.25%), lignin (14.02%), ash (3.25%), wax (0.10%), and moisture (8.93%) content were observed in SA-treated fibers than others. Similarly, highest weight loss (20.80%), reduced diameter (0.3166 mm), and density (0.389 g/cc) were obtained in SA-treated fibers than the other fibers investigated. Outcomes of FT-IR spectra evident the presence of cellulose and partial removal of non-cellulosic constituents in BC-, PP-, and SA-treated fibers.Enhanced crystallinity index (69.5%) and crystallite size (7.43 nm) values of SAtreated fiber indicated the elimination of amorphous lignin and hemicellulose, and made the structure to be more crystalline which supports to obtain higher tensile properties (tensile strength of 489.07 MPa and tensile modulus of 9.4 GPa) than others. Maximal degradation temperature of SA-treated fiber was 328.86 C and also having kinetic activation energy of 90.7 kJ/mol.

The present work deals with the identification of a new natural fiber from the Phoenix sp. plant and their characteristics were studied for preparing the fiber-reinforced polymer composites. This fiber was extracted by simple manual peeling process. Physico-chemical and mechanical properties are studied according to the standards. The morphology of the fiber was studied by using scanning electron microscopy. Xray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy are used to identify the crystallinity index and chemical groups present in the fiber, respectively. The fiber has an average diameter of 577 mm and density of 1.2576 g/cc. The cellulose, lignin, wax, ash, and moisture contents present in the fiber are 76.13%, 4.29%, 0.32%, 19.69%, and 10.47%, respectively. The crystallinity index was 57%. The Griffith model was used to obtain the average values of diameter and tensile properties of Phoenix sp. fiber. The maximum tensile strength and Young's modulus were around 348.95 MPa and 7.62 GPa, respectively. The Phoenix sp. fiber properties were compared with the properties of existing natural fibers.

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