Investigation of the Date Palm Fiber for Green Composites Reinforcement: Thermo-physical and Mechanical Properties of the Fiber

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the chemical and thermo-physical characterization of date palm fiber, which can be used in the reinforcement of green composites. Alkaline solutions with different concentrations of NaOH (0.5, 1, 2 and 3%) and various immersion times (0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8h) at room temperature were used to treat fibers obtained from date palm fruit branches. In total, 750 samples were tested, and the results obtained show that the chemical treatment of the fibers can lead to an increase, up to 3 times, of their mechanical properties (strength and Young’s modulus) in quasi-static tensile tests. Due to the dispersion in the experimental data, a statistical approach is required to evaluate the mechanical properties. To better understand the phenomena related to the physico-chemical properties of these fibers, several characterization techniques have been used, namely Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction. The data have been compared with results reported in the literature for other lignocellulosic fibers.

摘要

本文主要研究了椰枣纤维的化学和热物理性质，该纤维可用于增强绿色复合材料，室温下不同浓度的氢氧化钠（0.5%、1%、2%、3%）和不同浸泡时间（0.5%、1%、2、4、6、8h）的碱性溶液。采用E法处理枣果枝条纤维.总共测试了750个样品，结果表明，在准静态拉伸试验中，纤维的化学处理可使其力学性能（强度和杨氏模量）增加3倍.由于实验数据的分散性，需要一种统计方法来评估力学性能.为了更好地理解与这些纤维物理化学性质相关的现象，已经使用了几种表征技术，即傅立叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）、热重分析（TGA）、差示扫描量热法（DSC）和X射线衍射。这些数据与文献中其他木质纤维素纤维的结果进行了比较.

KEYWORDS:

• Fiber from date palm fruit branches
• thermo-physical properties
• lignocellulosic fiber
• weibull 2 and 3 parameters
• mechanical properties
• surface treatments

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Ms. Bertine Khelifi from LGP2 (Grenoble, France) for her help on acquiring the SEM images, Ms. Cecile Bruzzese from LGP2 and Encinas Thierry Assistant Ingénieur Grenoble INP - CMTC. LGP2 is part of the LabEx Tec 21 (Investissements d’Avenir - grant agreement n°ANR-11-LABX-0030) and of PolyNat Carnot Institute (Investissements d’Avenir - grant agreement n° ANR-16-CARN-0025-01).