Structural and Chemical Characteristics of Sisal Fiber and Its Components: Effect of Washing and Grinding

This work covers the study of microstructural changes of natural sisal fibers induced by different conditioning pre-treatments: mechanical grinding, cryogenic grinding, and hot waterwashing. The aim of the work is to clarify the effects of the pre-treatments on crystallinity and infrared spectra of sisal. Scanning electron microscopy results allowed to identify morphological changes on the fiber surface. Deeper changes of chemical origin were studied by attenuated total reflectance/Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and focused on the main components of cellular walls: cellulose, lignin, and xylan. The work was complemented with crystallinity index (I-c) data determined by two very different methods: the widely used for lignocellulosic fibers Segal equation based on X-ray diffraction measurements, and the other based on FTIR through the 1430/900 cm(-1) band intensity ratio, which is mostly used with cellulosic samples.