Extraction and Characterization of Microfibers Obtained from Banana Waste

The main objective is to Extraction of cellulose fibers using mechanical ball milling process and chemical treatment methods. The fibers are incorporated with an epoxy matrix to make composite plates. Mechanical properties such as tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact energy are evaluated. Ball milling is the mechanical extraction method of producing nano size powder. The increase in milling process results in the chance of occurring nanofibers. The ball milling process is carried out without any chemical treatment process. In chemical treatment methods, three different kinds of treatment are performed namely sodium hypochlorite, sulphuric acid and acetic acid. Using hand layup methods these fibers are incorporated into the epoxy matrix to fabricate composite plates. In my study nanosized fiber is not obtained, only 28 micron fibers are converted into 3-4 microns. Mechanical properties show that chemically treated sodium hypochlorite samples give better mechanical properties. Experimental and theoretical tensile strength is examined using different theory models. The result depicts that Hirsch model is far from experimental value. The future work is to treat the fiber with different proportion of chemical. A hybrid composite is prepared with varying the volume fraction of fiber. Free vibration test should be conducted on hybrid composites.