Natural Hemp Fibre as Additives to Form Polymer Composites
Seventeenth International Conference "Mechanics of Composite Materials" (MCM - 2012): Book of Abstracts 2012
Anna Šutka, Silvija Kukle, Jānis Grāvītis

Hemp bast fiber is Latvian renewable resource, which is rich in cellulose. High mechanical strength of crystalline cellulose pays the attention of scholars, which are searching method for extraction of the cellulose nanofibres from it. They could find wide application in various technological fields. Therefore is carried out intensive studies of pulp processing in the form of nanowhiskers, nanofibres, nanoparticles. Acquisition of nanofibres from cellulose bast fibers poses a problem because cellulose is insoluble/soluble difficult in practice-use solvents. Besides, cellulose macromolecules are integrated into microfibrils in the bast fibers, which are merged in to macrofibrils, fibers, fiber bundles, technical fibers and each of the entities in addition to crystalline cellulose contains amorphous areas/cover ligno-cellulosic, lignin, pectin, and/or in wax form that should be removed before electrospinning process using alkali treatment and steam explosion technique (STEX). Steam explosion is a promising technique to decompose natural fibre hierarchical structure down to microfibrilles. Also, lignines and pectines, sugars and other components can be removed by this method. During the STEX process, fibres are chemically modified and mechanically defibrillated. At the end of the steaming process, the instantaneous release of pressure stops the reaction and separates the fibres.


Keywords
steam explosion, hemp, cellulose, alkali treatment
Hyperlink
http://www.pmi.lv/Assets/Files/AbstractBookMCM2012.pdf#page=178

Šutka, A., Kukle, S., Grāvītis, J. Natural Hemp Fibre as Additives to Form Polymer Composites. In: Seventeenth International Conference "Mechanics of Composite Materials" (MCM - 2012): Book of Abstracts, Latvia, Riga, 28 May-1 Jun., 2012. Riga: Institute of Polymer Mechanics. University of Latvia, 2012, pp.178-178.

Publication language
English (en)
The Scientific Library of the Riga Technical University.
E-mail: uzzinas@rtu.lv; Phone: +371 28399196