Curauá fiber from plants produced by tissue culture: thermal, mechanical, and morphological characterizations

Fibers obtained from curauá, a species of small ornamental pineapples, are known for their good mechanical properties and benefits, such as ballistic resistance, in composites. To obtain a quantity of curauá suitable for commercial application, in vitro cultivation of the plant is tested. In this work, we produced curauá plants via tissue culture (micropropagation technique) and extracted the fibers. The fibers grown in vitro were characterized to determine moisture, ash, extracts, lignin, hemicelluloses, holocellulose, and cellulose contents; and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR–ATR), X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and mechanical testing and analysis were performed. Compared with data on curauá fibers grown traditionally––i.e., cultivated outside of a laboratory setting––this curauá fiber presented a higher content of cellulose (77.2%) and lower hemicellulose content (6.8%). Another unique feature was the high crystallinity of the cellulose present in the fiber (73.53%), which reflected good thermal and mechanical properties. This study indicates that the micropropagation technique is highly advantageous for higher-scale production of this fiber for application in composites, as it generates high-quality fibers grown in a controlled plant growth environment.