The effect of alkaline treatments soaking time on oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibre structure

Abstract

The primary objective of this work was to study the effect of different soaking time in an alkaline solution for oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibre. For this purpose, the OPEFB fibres were treated with the sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 5% concentration for 1/2 hour, 1-hour, 3-hour, 5-hour, 7-hour and 24-hours. The single tests of treated and untreated fibre were then performed in accordance with the ASTM D3822-07 standard. Next, the surfaces of the fibres prior and after the treatment were observed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) TM3000. The result shows that at 7 hours of soaking time exhibits the highest tensile strength compared to the other soaking time and untreated fibre.