Seasonal effect on the chemical composition of the leaves of Stipa tenacissima L. and implications for pulp properties

Belkhir, Samia; Koubaa, Ahmed; Khadhri, Ayda; Ksontini, Mustapha; Nadji, Hamid; Smiti, Samira; Stevanović, Tatjana

doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2012.09.023

Cited by 23 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Alpha-grass stalks had 45% alpha-cellulose, 24.1% gamma-cellulose, 23.4% lignin, 7.6% extractives, and 3.2% ash contents (w/w). This composition agreed with other published studies (Belkhir et al 2013;Ben Brahim and Ben Cheikh 2007;Marrakchi et al 2011;Nadji et al 2006;Paiva et al 2007). However, other researchers found lower lignin contents (Bouiri and Amrani 2010).…”

Section: Chemical Characterization Of the Alpha-grass Stalkssupporting

confidence: 93%

“…It was found that the main length of the reinforcement fibers decreased with the fiber content, a direct effect of the increase of the attrition during the composite preparation when the percentage of fiber increased (Bourmaud and Baley 2007;Karmaker and Youngquist, 1996;Vallejos et al 2012). On the other hand, the mean diameter of the fibers remained almost constant and was not affected by the material preparation and manufacturing; the results are in line with that obtained by Belkhir et al (2013), although a different chemical cooking process was used. The length factor showed little variation with respect to the aspect ratio of the reinforcement.…”

Section: Determination Of Young's Moduli Of the Fiberssupporting

confidence: 84%

“…In these regions, alpha-fibers have been used since ancient times to prepare ropes, basketry, and espadrilles because of their toughness and resistance. Nevertheless, the most common current use of esparto-grass is in the production of fibers for high-quality lightweight paper (Belkhir et al 2013;Nada et al 2002). Despite the large number of works published concerning the use of fibers from plants as reinforcing agents, research devoted to alpha-fibers has remained limited (Abdelmouleh et al 2007;Paiva et al 2007;Valente Nabais et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High Stiffness Performance Alpha-Grass Pulp Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Starch-Based Fully Biodegradable Composites

Espinach¹,

Julián²,

Alcalà³

et al. 2013

BioResources

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Alpha-grass was studied as the reinforcement in a starch-based polymer matrix. Mater-bi®-Y was chosen as a matrix due to its Young's modulus, in line with that of polypropylene. The test specimens were injection molded and tensile tested. The obtained results were compared to glass fiber reinforced polypropylene. The reinforcing fibers increased the Young's modulus significantly, obtaining values up to 7.2 GPa, comparable to those obtained with reinforced polypropylene. The contribution of the fibers to the final composite Young's modulus was also studied, and it was found that was in line with other natural fibers contribution to polypropylene-based composites. Finally, it was found that the value of the efficiency factor of the module remained similar to that of natural fiber reinforced polypropylene.

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Section: Chemical Characterization Of the Alpha-grass Stalkssupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Determination Of Young's Moduli Of the Fiberssupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

High Stiffness Performance Alpha-Grass Pulp Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Starch-Based Fully Biodegradable Composites

Espinach¹,

Julián²,

Alcalà³

et al. 2013

BioResources

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“…Thereby, not only all available plant species should be sampled but also different parts of the same species (buds, leaves, fruits, sprouts) at different periods of the year, as the chemical composition within a given species is changing throughout the year (e.g. the amount of cellulose could be higher in the autumn than in spring) (Belkhir et al 2013). Due to the limited period of reference sampling, the amount of plant reference material was sufficient for this first application of FT-IR on grouse faeces, but should be extended in future studies.…”

Section: Feeding Plants In Black Grouse Faecesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyses of Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix) faeces with infrared spectroscopic methods

2015

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In recent years, the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to assess the diet, digestibility or nutritional values of food items of ruminants. However, it has never been used to analyse the diet of grouse species. Commonly used methods have so far been direct observations of birds and microscopical analyses of droppings. The sample preparation and comparison of microscopical analyses is a highly time-consuming procedure. The comparison is based on morphological structures of epidermal cells, like the shape of cells, stomata or trichomes. In contrast, the sample preparation for the FT-IR and the subsequent measuring is simple and quickly done. We investigated the diet of Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix L.) in two study areas with infrared spectroscopic methods comparing summer and winter droppings' content with plant reference material. The study areas are located in the provinces of Salzburg and Upper Austria, Austria. In our study, samples were measured in the mid-and nearinfrared range. We tried to determine the dominating content of faecal samples at species, genera or family level or at least to assign samples to one of four main plants groups (i.e. woody plants, heathers, herbs and grasses). Our results showed a dominance of Larix decidua within the group of woody plants in both areas and, within the group of heathers, a dominance of Calluna vulgaris and Rhododendron hirsutum in one study area. Partially, our results are in marked contrast to other studies conducted in the Alps, as Vaccinium myrtillus was not detected in the samples. For further methodological studies, faecal sampling over larger areas, larger samples of plant reference material (including seeds and other parts of plants at different seasons), taking more samples per dropping and synchronous comparisons of microscopic analyses as well as FT-IR spectroscopy, are recommended.

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“…In these regions, alpha-fibers have been used since ancient times to prepare ropes, basketry, and espadrilles due to their toughness and resistance. Nevertheless, at present, the most common utilization of esparto-grass comes from the production of fibers for high-quality lightweight paper (Nada et al 2002;Belkhir et al 2013). Despite the large number of works published regarding the use of fibers from plants as reinforcing agents, the research devoted to alpha-fibers remains very limited (Abdelmouleh et al 2007;Paiva et al 2007;Girones et al 2012;Valente Nabais et al 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Performance-Tensile-Strength Alpha-Grass Reinforced Starch-Based Fully Biodegradable Composites

Gironès¹,

Espinach²,

Pellicer³

et al. 2013

BioResources

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aThough there has been a great deal of work concerning the development of natural fibers in reinforced starch-based composites, there is still more to be done. In general, cellulose fibers have lower strength than glass fibers; however, their specific strength is not far from that of fiberglass. In this work, alpha-fibers were obtained from alpha-grass through a mild cooking process. The fibers were used to reinforce a starch-based biopolymer. Composites including 5 to 35% (w/w) alpha-grass fibers in their formulation were prepared, tested, and subsequently compared with those of wood-and fiberglass-reinforced polypropylene (PP). The term "high-performance" refers to the tensile strength of the studied composites and is mainly due to a good interphase, a good dispersion of the fibers inside the matrix, and a good aspect ratio. The tensile strength of the composites showed a linear evolution for fiber contents up to 35% (w/w). The strain at break of the composites decreased with the fiber content and showed the stiffening effects of the reinforcement. The prepared composites showed high mechanical properties, even approaching those of glass fiber reinforced composites. Keywords INTRODUCTIONIt is commonly accepted that biopolymers and bio-fibers have the potential to replace or reduce the consumption of fossil fuel-derived plastics. In addition, to facilitate the recycling of these materials, such replacement should lead to reductions in energy consumption, pollution, and CO 2 emissions. Hence, fiber-reinforced composites are often described as eco-friendly materials. However, the mechanical properties and/or the price of such composites have rendered them inadequate for many applications to date. In general, cellulosic fibers have inferior strength compared to their synthetic counterparts, such as aramid, carbon, and glass fibers.Due to their lower density, some natural fibers have a specific strength not far from those of fiberglass. On the other hand, bio-based matrices (such as polylactic acid or polyhydroxybutyrate) remain more expensive than petroleum-derived polymers. Nevertheless, thanks to their price/performance balance, ongoing innovations are offering new commercial opportunities for bio-based polymers and their composites in several applications. PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLEbioresources.com Gironès et al. (2013). "Alpha/starch composites," BioResources 8(4), 6121-6135 6122Compared to lactones, butyrates, valerates, and other monomers used for the synthesis of biodegradable polymers, starch is an inexpensive product whose transformation into a thermoplastic polymer can be accomplished in a rather straight-forward manner (Coombs and Hall 1998;Teixeira et al. 2007;Averous and Halley 2009;Dogossy and Czigany 2011;Gandini 2011). As a result, thermoplastic starch (TPS) is considered one of the most promising biopolymers for large-scale applications. During the last few decades, TPS has received considerable attention among the scientific world (John and Thomas 2008;Belhassen et al. 2009;Cañigueral et al. 2009;Cha...

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Seasonal effect on the chemical composition of the leaves of Stipa tenacissima L. and implications for pulp properties

Cited by 23 publications

References 22 publications

High Stiffness Performance Alpha-Grass Pulp Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Starch-Based Fully Biodegradable Composites

High Stiffness Performance Alpha-Grass Pulp Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Starch-Based Fully Biodegradable Composites

Analyses of Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix) faeces with infrared spectroscopic methods

High-Performance-Tensile-Strength Alpha-Grass Reinforced Starch-Based Fully Biodegradable Composites

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