ALBERT

Beschreibung:    Hibiscus sabdariffa (Roselle) stem fiber has 73.9% cellulose and is present in abundance though-out the world. It has a low therapeutic potential but lesser weight and high tensile strength promotes it to serve as an effective backbone for graft copolymerization. This renewable biomass was graft copolymerized with efficient acrylate as principal monomer while incorporating the secondary monomers in addition, to enhance the graft yield. The increase in graft yield affected the properties and behavior of the fiber. The morphological transformations in the graft co-polymers were characterized by FTIR, SEM, TG–DTA and XRD. The modified fiber were found to be physico-chemico-thermally resistant, hydrophobic whereas, percentage crystallinity, crystallinity index decreased with increase in percentage grafting. The use of raw fiber and graft copolymers as reinforcement in phenol–formaldehyde polymer matrix based bio-composites improved the physico-chemico-thermal properties and the mechanical strengths like the flexural strength/modulus of rupture, young’s modulus/modulus of elasticity, stress at the limit of proportionality and hardness. These advanced materials could be useful in various scientific and industrial applications and serve as pioneer for the development of technology. Content Type Journal Article Category Original Paper Pages 1-8 DOI 10.1007/s12649-011-9098-y Authors Ashish Chauhan, Department of Chemistry, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab 144 011, India Balbir Kaith, Department of Chemistry, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab 144 011, India Journal Waste and Biomass Valorization Online ISSN 1877-265X Print ISSN 1877-2641