Preparation and characterisation of mechanically milled particles from waste alpaca fibres

Abstract In this work, a chemical free green processing route was followed to fabricate alpaca powders from waste alpaca fibres. The waste fibres were converted into powders with the average particle size of 2.5 μm without using any chemicals neither in pre-treatment nor in powder fabrication process. Despite visible morphological changes of the powder samples, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) revealed no chemical change or shift in the functional groups. The crystallinity of the powdered samples decreased with the reduction of particle size in different stages of the milling process. The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric (TGA) test results revealed that the thermal stability of the alpaca powder was almost similar to that of alpaca fibre. The air jet-milled powder showed an increase in moisture regain and moisture content by around 38% and 33% respectively than that of alpaca fibres. The results suggest that alpaca powders have a great potential to be introduced to a wide range of new applications.