Extraction and characterization of novel biomass-based lignocellulosic fiber Ficus benghalensis bark for potential green material applications

Natural fibers play a vital role in many industrial applications. Raising the demand for natural fiber, the present is proposed to characterize the novel fiber named Ficus benghalensis (FB) that was extracted from branches of banyan tree. Raw FB fiber has cellulose content of 53.30 wt.%, hemicellulose content of 28.23 wt.%, lignin content of 21.97 wt.%, wax content of 1.69 wt.%, moisture content of 7.43 wt.%, pectin content of 12.13 wt.%, density of 0.49 g/cm3 and ash content of 5.98 wt.%. The diameter of the raw FB fiber is observed as 255 mu m, and the same will decrease, and surface area increases, as it undergoes alkali treatment. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) investigation shows that the expected functional groups are present in the raw and alkali-treated FB fibers. In the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) test, raw FB fiber has a maximum degradation temperature at 345 degrees C which shows less than 6% alkali-treated fiber of 394 degrees C. The raw and treated FB fiber's thermally induced transitions are confirmed by the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) test. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of untreated FBFs revealed a crystallinity index (CI) of 63.68% but 4% alkali treated shows 69.85% with crystallite size (CS) of 1.68 nm. The surface morphology of FB fiber is rough due to alkali treatment. The tensile strength and Young's modulus of FB fiber were measured as 360.12 MPa and 7.76 GPa, respectively. This can be used to develop green materials for automotive and other industrial applications.