Effect of Treatments on Coir Fibre

Abstract

This project investigated the effect of using cellulase enzyme, sodium hydroxide & hydrogen peroxide under specific treatment conditions, on the physical characteristics of coir fibres. Coir is ligno cellulosic fibre and is a coarser variety of seed fibre having some inherent advantages, namely agro-renewability, biodegradability, good tensile strength and modulus, high moisture regain and good dye bility. It has wide applications in home textiles, floor coverings, composites and geotextiles. However, this fibre has some inherent drawbacks such as stiffness, harshness, mesh structure with variable fibre length and branching, due to the presence of lignin. These drawbacks are chiefly responsible for its low spinnability, thereby limiting its applications. The physical characteristics such as tenacity, elongation, bending length and weigh loss after each treatment were studied. Tensile characteristics of these enzyme, alkalis, peroxide treated coir fibres in terms of tenacity (Mpa) were found to decrease by approximately 8.19%, 20.1% and 33.4% for cellulase enzyme treatment and, 6.64%, 16.26% and 32.18% for NaOH, 12.1%, 26.1% and 40.08% for hydrogen peroxide at 5%,10% and 20% concentration levels, respectively.