Title: The potential use of fibres derived from wild Abyssinia bananas in reinforcing polymer composites

Authors: Temam Kadire; Sanghamitra Das; Shrikrishna N. Joshi

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India

Abstract: This study systematically characterised wild Abyssinia bananas (WABs) fibre properties such as physical, chemical, thermal, structural, mechanical, and morphology. WAB fibre properties were investigated using sophisticated equipment such as TGA, XRD, FTIR, UTM and SEM. The observed result revealed that the fibres have a diameter of 163.3 ± 27 μm and 1.31 ± 0.09 g/cm³ of density. Results obtained from TGA present the thermal stability of fibre at 237.16°C, activation energy was 84.80 kJ/mol, and percentages of chemical components such as cellulose (52.14%), hemicellulose (12.91%) and lignin (9.10%). Tensile strength was 493 ± 122.5 MPa, the tensile modulus 47 ± 8.8 GPa, and strain at failure was 1.07 ± 0.17%. The experimental findings indicate that WAB fibres have the potential to serve as effective reinforcing materials for lightweight applications in polymers, including epoxy, polyester and vinyl esters composites.

Keywords: wild Abyssinia banana; WAB; chemical composition; thermal stability; tensile strength; crystallinity index.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMATEI.2025.145068

International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation, 2025 Vol.16 No.1, pp.58 - 77

Received: 23 Aug 2023
Accepted: 30 Nov 2023
Published online: 18 Mar 2025 *