Abstract

• Areca nut husk is abundantly available in Mone, Kyauk-kyi Township, Bago Region as byproduct from the areca nut farm, and finding a way to convert it into a value added material to produce a useful material could be of national interest. The fibre was extracted from the areca nut husk, washed and treated with 5 % NaOH, some of the product was further treated separately with permanganate and benzoyl chloride to modify the fibre surface. As a result, considerable change in surface morphology of fibres was observed by SEM using an Evol 18 Zeiss scanning electron microscope (SEM). Lignin and hemicellulose contents were reduced by the alkali treatment as shown by the FT IR spectra recorded on a Tracer 100 Shimadzu spectrophometer. The thermal characteristics of the untreated and treated natural fibre was studied by TG TDA. The surface tension of the untreated and treated fibre (in the order given above) were found to be, 24.86, 25.86, 26.95 and 26.10 mN m-1 . Thus by the surface treatment, the fibre surface tension, was found to increase, which is favorable for a better fibre – matrix binding in a composite. Fibre diameter (by micrometer), fibre length (by vernier calliper) and aspect ratio of the untreated and treated fibre were found to be, respectively, 0.36, 0.38, 0.35 and 0.38 mm; 53.34, 56.61, 52.19 and 54.86 mm; 148.16, 148.97, 149.11 and 144.37. Water absorption property by soaking-squeezing method showed the water absorption % of the untreated and treated fibres at 6, 12 and 24 h, respectively, to be 277.64 , 292.17, 219.39 and 288.05 %; 268.45, 290.70 , 205.70 and 251.50 %; 250.95, 254.19 , 204.66 and 222.23 %, showing increase in water absorption of the fibre after alkaline treatment, but significant decrease by the permanganate treatment, which is good for resistance of the composite to moisture. The present study suggests improvement of fibre morphology and composition for the preparation of a useful composite material.