A New Treatment Method for Cellulose-Rich Fibers Toward High Performance Bio-composite Applications

Abstract This article reports a new chemical treatment method to extract rich cellulosic fibers from date palm agro-residues. The technique comprises a multistep process which is quite unique, efficient, sustainable, and capable of producing high-performance natural date palm fibers. In specific, it consists of three consecutive steps: dewaxing, acetylation, and mercerization, which are carried out in a strict sequence. Each step is designated to achieve a specific goal in preparation for the next step. In addition, procedures have been adjusted from its initial state by incorporating input parameters that are configured experimentally to optimize outputs via the design of experiment approach. The method has been applied in two variants with respect to heating mechanism: conventional heat-assisted and microwave heat-assisted sources. An experimental characterization of mechanical, physical, and thermal properties of the treated fibers exhibited a significant enhancement over the untreated counterparts which confirms the potency of the new process.