Abstract:

In order to exploit the utilization value of luffa fiber resources, steam explosion, combined enzyme process and chemical process were adopted to treat natural luffa fiber, and the effect of different treatment processes on luffa fiber′ s properties was investigated. Scanning electran microsoope and thermogravimetric analyzer were used to analyze the surface morphology structure, degumming rate, chemical composition, thermal property and moisture absorption and release properties of luffa fibers before and after treatment, and the moisture absorption and release curves of luffa fibers were drawn. The result shows that the treated luffa fibers all have a large number of grooves in the surface, and the chemical treatment effect is the most obvious. The fibers subjected to the steam explosion treatment have the lowest degumming rate of 20. 00% and cellulose content is 54. 61%. The fibers subjected to the chemical treatment has the cellulose content up to 81. 10%, and the effect of the enzyme treatment is the second. The lignin content of luffa fibers subjected to the three treatment process are all high. The moisture regain of luffa fiber increases with the increase of the degumming rate, the curves of moisture absorption and release of luffa fibers treated by the three processes have substantial consistent rule. The pretreatment facilitates the improvement of thermal stability of luffa fibers. The higher the degumming rate, the higher the thermal decomposition temperature.

Key words: luffa fiber, pretreatment, moisture absorption, degumming rate, thermal property