Studies on interfacial shear strength of pineapple leaf fibre from agro-waste reinforced polypropylene composites: Influence of fibre length and carding parameters

This work investigates the potential utilisation of the agro-waste pineapple leaf fibre (PALF) as a green reinforcement in polypropylene (PP) composites. Generally, chemical treatment is used to clean the scratched PALF, and the effluents of those chemicals are discharged into nature. A new mechanical approach (carding) was used in this work to remove the remaining extraneous substances from the scratched and sun-dried PALF instead of using any chemical treatment. The percentage of sticky fibres and dust content decreased, and fibre breakage increased with the increasing number of carding passages. The individualized fibre properties were also influenced by the number of carding passages. The carding process reduced the diameter of PALF due to removal of extraneous materials. The tensile properties of raw PALF improved significantly until the fourth carding passage and further increase in the number of passages did not show any significant influence on the tenacity and modulus. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the elimination of hemicellulose along with other gummy and waxy substances from the individualized PALF due to the carding action. The crystallinity % also increased after the carding process due to the removal of amorphous substances. As the reinforcement-matrix interfacial shear strength (IFSS) strongly influences the physico-mechanical properties of composites, IFSS of carded PALF reinforced finer and coarser PP fibre micro-bonded composites was also studied using the single fibre pull-out test (SFPT). Among different composites, the fourth carding passed PALF-reinforced finer PP fibre micro-bonded composite showed the highest IFSS. Additionally, the load- extension curves and SEM images of the tensile pulled-out surface were investigated to study the interfacial adhesion between PALF and PP micro-droplets. The increased surface roughness of PALF due to the carding action resulted in an improvement in the IFSS of PALF-reinforced PP micro-bonded composites.