Characterization of natural fiber obtained from different parts of date palm tree (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

Alotaibi MD 1 , Alshammari BA 2 , Saba N 3 , Alothman OY 4 , Sanjay MR 5 , Almutairi Z 6 Show all authors , Jawaid M 7

Affiliations 

  • 1 Life Science and Environment Research Institute, King Abdulaziz City for Science &Technology, P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia
  • 2 Materials Science Institute, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia
  • 3 Department of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, Karantaka, India
  • 6 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
  • 7 Department of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: jawaid@upm.edu.my
Int J Biol Macromol, 2019 Aug 15;135:69-76.
PMID: 31116962 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.05.102

Abstract

The current study is motivated by the strict environmental regulations regarding the utilization and consumption of ecofriendly materials. In this context, the aim of this study has been to prepare and characterize different date palm tree (Phoenix dactylifera L.) fibers processed through the conventional water retting method. The chemical, elemental, crystallinity, thermal and morphological characterization of trunk (DPTRF), leaf stalk (DPLST), sheath or leaf sheath (DPLSH) and fruit bunch stalk (DPFBS) fibers was carried out. Chemical analysis revealed that the four types of date palm fibers display noteworthy differences in the content of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Also, the amount of calcium is relatively high in all the date palm fibers; besides this, DPTRF exhibited 69.2% crystallinity, which is lower than that of DPLSH with 72.4% crystallinity. Moreover, DPLST and DPFBS fibers are more thermally stable (higher thermal degradation temperature) than DPTRF and DPLSH samples. Morphological analysis revealed that the fracture surface of DPFBS was relatively rougher, which would probably lead to increased bonding strength with polymers in composites. Overall, we conclude that DPFBS would be promising alternative sustainable and biomass material for the isolation of respective cellulose nanofibers and cellulose nanocrystals as potential reinforcement in polymer composites.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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