Properties of an Amazonian vegetable fiber as a potential reinforcing material

Abstract

The jacitara palm (Desmoncus polyacanthos Mart.) is widely used by the artisans of the Amazon Basin region of Negro River, Brazil, and is known to provide excellent fiber characteristics and appearance. However, there is a lack of technical/scientific information about this important vegetable fiber. The objective of this study was to evaluate the main properties of jacitara fibers for their future technological application as reinforcement in composites. Anatomical, ultrastructural, chemical, physical and mechanical tests were performed. The coefficient of rigidity, fraction wall, Runkel index and aspect ratio results showed the potential of the jacitara fibers as reinforcement in composites. The range of the microfibrillar angle of the fibers was 12.8–16.5°. The average contents of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, extractives and mineral components were 66.9%, 18.4%, 14.7%, 11.6% and 1.8%, respectively. Fibers extracted from the bottom or from the medium part of the jacitara stem showed higher modulus of elasticity (1.9 GPa and 1.7 GPa, respectively) and tensile strength (74.4 MPa and 70.6 MPa, respectively) than that extracted from the upper part. The properties of the jacitara fibers are in the same range of other lignocellulosic materials. The experimental results in the present work contribute to the widespread use of the jacitara fibers as a source of raw material that may be used to engineered composites and new materials for different applications in the near future.