The suitability of Ugandan Musa sapientum banana plant species for textile fibre production.

Abstract

Banana stem has no use after harvesting the fruit; there is a huge generation of waste as a consequence of the plant life-cycle, because pseudostems, hangers and leaves are not economically used. Therefore, this study was carried out to analyse the suitability of Ugandan Musa Sapientum banana species for the production of textile fibre. The fibre was extracted from the banana pseudostem by hand, morphological characterization of fibres was done, the fibre was scoured using an alkali (NaOH and ash water) and then bleached using hydrogen peroxide, Scouring was done at-different NaOH concentrations and ash water at different timings of 30, 60 and 90 minutes respectively. Fibre tensil property testing was done before and after fibre treatment. The fibre morphological properties were analysed before any fibre treatment was done. Generally, Musa Sapientum was found to have Very robust fibres that could be used in various textile applications as industrial textiles consumer textiles, furnishing textiles among others. Musa Sapientum fibre, treatment using alkali increases its tensile strength and young's modulus and has got less effect on fibre elongation. Morphological characterisation showed that treated fibres surface was rougher than that of untreated fibres. From the results, the optimum scouring conditions for Musa Sapientum fibre scouring is using 2g/L of NaOH or ash water of PH 10 for one hour; however, ash water treatment gives stronger fibres with higher modulus of elasticity. High figure of young’s modulus signifies fibre stiffness. Musa Sapientum fibre, optimisation, mechanical and physical properties, textile application