Physical, Chemical, Morphological and Thermal Characterization of Natural Fibers

The increasing concern over the waste reduction and health hazards associated with the use of synthetic fibers such as glass fibers, carbon fibers, aramides and other fibers have turned the attention towards natural ecofriendly green fibers. In this paper natural fibers namely – milkweed fiber, agave americana fiber and sansevieria roxburghiana fibers have been studied experimentally to determine the physical, chemical, morphological and thermal properties by FTIR, SEM, PLM, X-Ray Diffraction, DSC and TGA analysis methods. In this study, Sansevieria fiber was observed to have the highest tenacity of 53.58 g/tex and showed maximum degradation temperature of 375 o C. Milkweed fibers were found to have the lowest density of 0.9 g/cc and possessed hollow structure with smooth surface as observed from SEM and PLM techniques.