Characterization of Natural Fiber Extracted from Corn ( Zea mays L.) Stalk Waste for Sustainable Development

Saroj Devi, Pawan Kumar Poonia, Vikas Kumar (), Anjali Tiwari, Rajesh Kumar Meena, Uttam Kumar (), Aneela Gulnaz and Mohammad Khalid Al-Sadoon
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Saroj Devi: Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pandu Pindara, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar 126102, India
Pawan Kumar Poonia: Department of Forestry, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar 125004, India
Vikas Kumar: Department of Agriculture, Vivekananda Global University, Jaipur 303012, India
Anjali Tiwari: Department of Agroforestry, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture & Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya 224229, India
Rajesh Kumar Meena: Department of Forestry, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa 848125, India
Uttam Kumar: College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Aneela Gulnaz: Department of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan 38641, Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea
Mohammad Khalid Al-Sadoon: Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 24, 1-14

Abstract: Corn stalk fibers were extracted from corn stalk using sodium hydroxide for textile application. The extraction conditions were optimized on the basis of the quality and quantity of extracted fibers. The optimum conditions were obtained by treating corn stalk with 5 g/L concentration of sodium hydroxide for 60 min at boiling temperature using a 1:50 material-to-liquor ratio. Extracted fibers were bleached and tested for different physical and chemical properties. Besides these properties, the characterization of extracted fibers was carried out by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and Fourier–transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. SEM was used to study the morphological changes in the raw and bleached fibers. The crystallinity changes of the raw and bleached samples were measured with an X-ray diffractometer by peak height method. FTIR was used to examine the compositional changes in the bleaching process. It was found that raw fibers contained the cellular residues such as lignin and hemicelluloses, which cement the fibers together. The chemical treatments such as alkali and bleaching partially removed hemicelluloses, lignin, and amorphous fractions of cellulose. This led to the gradually increasing crystallinity of the treated fiber. Peak height values were obtained by measuring the transmittance of the spectra through FTIR analysis. Different physical and chemical properties of the extracted corn stalk fibers indicated that it can be used for making biodegradable composite materials.

Keywords: alkali extraction; corn stalk fiber; crystallinity; Fourier–transform infrared (FTIR); material-to-liquor ratio; SEM (scanning electron microscope); X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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