Evaluation of the Performance of Bagasse, Paddy Straw, and Banana Stem Fibers Pretreated by Alkaline Hydrogen Peroxide Pretreatment for Development of Cellulose-based Composite

In present, cellulose fibers are used to reinforce sustainable composite materials which are used in building constructions. Cellulose is a natural long chain polymer which can be extracted from lignocellulose materials. In this study, Alkaline Hydrogen Peroxide (AHP) pretreatment was used to extraction of cellulose from three available lignocellulose materials (Bagasse, Paddy Straw, Banana Stem) in Sri Lanka. Three pre-treatment solutions were prepared by mixing three different concentrations of NaOH with equal volume (10ml) and an equal volume (0.5 ml) of Hydrogen Peroxide(H₂O₂). The experiment consists of 27 samples combination of the above mentioned different NaOH and H₂O₂ concentrations and replicating each as three times. After AHP Pre-treatment, percentage of weight loss, percentage of cellulose content, fiber diameter, tensile strength and morphological characteristics were tested. Additionally, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was done for the confirmation of extracted fibers were cellulose. Holocellulose content and weight loss percentage were 86.63%-95.90% and 49.99%-74.32% respectively in pre-treated fibers. The tensile strength of banana stem fiber is highest (171.40Mpa) and paddy straw fiber is lowest (18.34Mpa) those fibers’ diameters were varying between 134.0-268.1 µm. According to the above test results, optimum pre-treatment solution concentration was separately selected by those lignocellulose materials.