Processing of Hemp Fibre Using Enzyme/Fungal Treatment for Composites
type: CreativeWork
description: Hemp fibres compete very well with glass fibres in terms of their specific strength and stiffness and so can replace glass fibres as reinforcement in composites. Combining them with thermoplastics results in potentially cheap recyclable composite materials. The adhesion between the hemp fibre and thermoplastics such as polypropylene is a major factor in the mechanical properties of the composite. Interfacial bonding can be improved by modifications to the fibres, the matrix or both the fibres and the matrix. The aim of this thesis was to investigate low cost and efficient fibre treatment methods with low environmental impact such as bag retting and white rot fungi, and chelator/enzyme treatments which could be applied to hemp fibre in order to create better bonding fibre for potentially recyclable composite materials. Bag retting was carried out by keeping fresh green hemp fibres in a sealed plastic bag for 1 to 2 weeks to allow natural retting to occur under sealed conditions. For white rot fungi treatments, the dried non-retted hemp fibres were gamma irradiated, and then inoculated with white rot fungi for 2 weeks. Chelator/enzyme treatment was achieved by immersing the fresh green non-retted hemp fibres in solutions consisting of either EDTMP.Na5 (ethylene diamine tetra (methylene phosphonic acid pentasodium salt) or pectinase (P2401) and laccase (53739) for 6 hours. Several characterization techniques, namely wet chemical analysis, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fibre density testing, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), zeta potential and single fibre tensile testing were used to assess the effect of treatment on hemp fibres. Wet chemical analysis and FT-IR, were used to measure the chemical compounds present in untreated and treated hemp fibres and showed all treatments removed non-cellulosic compounds from hemp fibre. The separation of untreated and treated …
abstract: Hemp fibres compete very well with glass fibres in terms of their specific strength and stiffness and so can replace glass fibres as reinforcement in composites. Combining them with thermoplastics results in potentially cheap recyclable composite materials. The adhesion between the hemp fibre and thermoplastics such as polypropylene is a major factor in the mechanical properties of the composite. Interfacial bonding can be improved by modifications to the fibres, the matrix or both the fibres and the matrix. The aim of this thesis was to investigate low cost and efficient fibre treatment methods with low environmental impact such as bag retting and white rot fungi, and chelator/enzyme treatments which could be applied to hemp fibre in order to create better bonding fibre for potentially recyclable composite materials. Bag retting was carried out by keeping fresh green hemp fibres in a sealed plastic bag for 1 to 2 weeks to allow natural retting to occur under sealed conditions. For white rot fungi treatments, the dried non-retted hemp fibres were gamma irradiated, and then inoculated with white rot fungi for 2 weeks. Chelator/enzyme treatment was achieved by immersing the fresh green non-retted hemp fibres in solutions consisting of either EDTMP.Na5 (ethylene diamine tetra (methylene phosphonic acid pentasodium salt) or pectinase (P2401) and laccase (53739) for 6 hours. Several characterization techniques, namely wet chemical analysis, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fibre density testing, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), zeta potential and single fibre tensile testing were used to assess the effect of treatment on hemp fibres. Wet chemical analysis and FT-IR, were used to measure the chemical compounds present in untreated and treated hemp fibres and showed all treatments removed non-cellulosic compounds from hemp fibre. The separation of untreated and treated …
author: Li, Yan
keywords: Fibre, plastic, composites, fungi treatment, enzyme treatment
date published: 2009
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:24Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato