The demand of natural cellulosic fibers has been increasing day by day due to their versatile uses and eco-friendly nature. The reason behind this demand is due to some unique properties of natural fibers that are suitable for several fibrous applications such as in composite, textile, nano-materials, conductive carbon, biomaterials etc. In this study, a new natural cellulosic fiber is extracted from the bark of the jack tree branches by water retting process. The fiber is characterized by standard methods. The result of the chemical compositions of the fiber shows that it contains α-cellulose 79.32%, hemicellulose 8.01%, lignin 6.77%, ash 3.58% and extractives 2.32%. XRD analysis reveals its high level of crystallinity (86%) and the microfibrillar angle (MFA) calculated from the XRD data is found -29°. The FTIR analysis confirms the presence of expected functional groups. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) reveal its good thermal stability and the maximum degradation occurred at 358 °C for the degradation of the α-cellulose. The density of the fiber is found 1.05 g/cc, which is lower compared to many other known natural fibers. All these properties of this new fiber are suitable for several sophisticated fibrous applications such as reinforcement in composite, textile, cellulose nano-materials, activated or conductive carbon, biomaterials etc.
Keywords: Cellulose; Crystallinity; Jack tree; Natural fiber; Water retting.
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