Recent Advancement in Physico-Mechanical and Thermal Studies of Bamboo and Its Fibers

Bamboo has its own role in the development of society. It is widely used as a support tools for sustainable farming and being exceptional resource for variety of income and employment-generating systems. This overlooked biomass provides food, raw material, shelter, medicine for large part of world’s population. Bamboo has given a great support to mankind by providing building materials that are extensively used for household products. It has found a good place for industrial applications due to advances in processing technology and increased market demand. Numerous fundamental studies were carried out to highlight their fundamental characteristics prior to industrial exploitation or high end bamboo-based biomaterials. The mechanical and physical properties of bamboo have noteworthy effects on their durability and strength. Thermogravimetry is one of the key sensitive technique that characterizes the mechanical responses of materials by monitoring property changes with respect to the temperature. Comprehensive review and study on thermal analysis are useful for quantitative determination of the degradation behaviour and the composition of the material. The magnitude and location of the derivative thermogravimetric curve also provides information of the interaction between the material components at various temperature scales. Therefore, these studies can be focused to evaluate the basic fundamental problems faced and thus, a well-designed research and development towards sustainability can be achieved

Synergistic effect of oil palm based pozzolanic materials/oil palm waste on polyester hybrid composite

This research work aims to investigate the synergistic effect of pozzolanic materials such as oil palm ash (OPA) and oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) on the developed hybrid polymer composites. The OPEFB and OPA fillers of different particle sizes (250, 150, and 75 µm) were mixed at OPEFB:OPA ratios of (0:100; 20:80; 40:60; 60:40; 80:20 and 100:0) and incorporated into an unsaturated polyester resin. Furthermore, both mechanical and morphological properties of the composites were analyzed and it was found that tensile, flexural, and impact properties were significantly improved at OPEFB:OPA of 75 µm particle size hybridization of the polymer. The increase of OPEFB to OPA filler ratio up to 80:20 significantly improved the tensile properties of the composites while 40:60 ratio of 75 µm gave the optimum filler ratio to obtain the highest flexural and impact properties of the composites among all studied samples. Scanning electron micrograph images showed strong particle dispersion of the embedded fillers with resin which explained the excellent mechanical strength enhancement of the composite

A review on nanocellulosic fibres as new material for sustainable packaging: process an applications

The demand for exploring advanced and eco-friendly sustainable packaging materials with superior physical, mechanical and barrier properties is increasing. The materials that are currently used in packaging for food, beverage, medical and pharmaceutical products, as well as in industrial applications, are non-degradable, and thus, these materials are raising environmental pollution concerns. Numerous studies have been conducted on the utilization of bio-based materials in the pursuit of developing sustainable packaging materials. Although significant improvements have been achieved, a balance among environmental concerns, economic considerations and product packaging performance is still lacking. This is likely due to bio-based materials being used in product packaging applications without a proper design. The present review article intends to summarize the information regarding the potential applications of cellulosic nanofiber for the packaging. The importance of the design process, its principles and the challenges of design process for sustainable packaging are also summarized in this review. Overall it can be concluded that scientists, designers and engineers all are necessarily required to contribute towards research in order to commercially exploit cellulose nanofiber for sustainable packaging

Barrier properties of biocomposites/hybrid films

There are available reports on the barrier properties of composites; however, with highly focused research in this field, there is a need to reevaluate the findings and current trends. Hybrid composites are a mixture of inorganic and organic components at the nanometer or molecular level, whereas, biocomposites are formed by reinforcing natural fibers into a matrix to improve their properties, including barrier characteristics. Such composites can be used for many applications, including packaging, to maintain the quality of products. Thus, the barrier properties of films are important characteristics. This chapter discusses the parameters that influence the barrier properties of composites such as the pore size, chemical structure, free volume, and crystallinity of the polymer. The aims of this chapter are to provide comprehensive knowledge about factors affecting the permeability and preparation methodology, the types of composites, and the types of barrier characteristics including oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and aroma, and to present the potential applications of such hybrid films

Effect of Hydrolysis Treatment on Cellulose Nanowhiskers from Oil Palm (Elaeis guineesis) Fronds: Morphology, Chemical, Crystallinity, and Thermal Characteristics

Oil palm fronds biomass was used as a source for isolation of cellulose nanowhiskers (CNW), and its subsequent characterization was done. Non-cellulosic components such as lignin, hemicellulose, and pectin were removed from the biomass by chemimechanical alkaline hydrogen peroxide method followed by sulphuric acid hydrolysis having different time duration of hydrolysis. Apart from the progressive reduction in peaks characteristic of hemicellulose and lignin dissolution, FTIR spectroscopy analysis showed that there were no significant variations in peak positions, signifying that the hydrolysis did not affect the chemical structure of CNW. FESEM showed that there was gradual reduction in the aggregated structure of fiber due to bleaching. Nanoscale structure of CNW was revealed by TEM. XRD analysis revealed that the natural structure of cellulose I polymorph was maintained irrespective of the hydrolysis time. High thermal stability and aspect ratio of the extracted CNW demonstrated its suitability as a reinforcement material in nanocomposites

Isolation and characterization of cellulosenanofibers from Gigantocholoa scortechinii as a reinforcement material

Cellulose nanofibers (CNF) were isolated from Gigantochloa scortechinii bamboo fibers using sulphuric acid hydrolysis. This method was compared with pulping and bleaching process for bamboo fiber. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis were used to determine the properties of CNF. Structural analysis by FT-IR showed that lignin and hemicelluloses were effectively removed from pulp, bleached fibers, and CNF. It was found that CNF exhibited uniform and smooth morphological structures, with fiber diameter ranges from 5 to 10 nm. The percentage of crystallinity was significantly increased from raw fibers to cellulose nanofibers, microfibrillated, along with significant improvement in thermal stability. Further, obtained CNF were used as reinforcement material in epoxy based nanocomposites where tensile strength, flexural strength, and modulus of nanocomposites improved with the addition of CNF loading concentration ranges from 0 to 0.7%