Morphological and Structural Characterization of Steam-Exploted Hemp Fibres
9th International Conference of Young Scientists on Energy Issues (CYSENI 2012): Conference Proceedings 2012
Anna Šutka, Silvija Kukle, Jānis Grāvītis

Cellulosic materials have a great potential for multifunctional nanomaterial formation. They are abundant, renewable, have a self-assembled well-defined nanofibrillar structure. Hemp fibre (cannabis sativa) is one of the plant-based bast fibres and has diverse reinforcing applications in different industry areas. Cellulose was extracted from drew-retted hemp fibres of variety Bialobrzeckie grown in Agricultural Science Centre of Latgale using adopted steam explosion technique (STEX) together with mild alkali treatment. It is possible to decompose natural fibre hierarchical structure down to microfibrilles by using STEX. Also, lignine and pectine, sugars and other components are removed by this method. The alkali treatment removes a certain amount of lignin, hemicellulose, wax and oils covering the external surface of the fibre cell wall and depolymerises the native cellulose structure.


Keywords
steam explosion, hemp fibre, cellulose, alkali treatments

Šutka, A., Kukle, S., Grāvītis, J. Morphological and Structural Characterization of Steam-Exploted Hemp Fibres. In: 9th International Conference of Young Scientists on Energy Issues (CYSENI 2012): Conference Proceedings, Lithuania, Kaunas, 24-25 May, 2012. Kaunas: Lithuanian Energy Institute, 2012, pp.515-524. ISSN 1822-7554.

Publication language
English (en)
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