Characterization of Treated and Untreated Sugarcane Bagasse Fiber in Powdered Form

Nowadays, it is recommended to use economical and environmentally beneficial materials when creating engineering goods. Sugarcane bagasse plays a dominant role in engineering applications, because sugarcane fibers and their bagasse are readily available and environmental friendly. They can be used extensively in engineering applications such as the chemical and structural industries. This work is initiated with the sugarcane bagasse fiber, and the powdered form is used for characterization and chemical treatment. This study mainly focuses on the chemical treatment of bagasse fiber with different micron sizes of 75, 150 and 300. The fiber used in the process is treated with both NaOH and HCl. After the treatment, the samples undergo various characterization methods such as Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning Electron microscope (SEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD). TGA results clearly show that a lower fiber size underwent chemical treatment results in a larger surface area. The two curves (TGA) converge and can withstand temperatures up to 680°C, with cumulative material losses of 86% and 78%, respectively, as AA300 and AAA300 are thoroughly examined. These results suggest that cellulose nano-fibrils derived from micro-fibrils with a significant surface area are a highly promising option as reinforcement in polymer.