Characterization of Natural Fiber Extracted from Corn (Zea mays L.) Stalk Waste for Sustainable Development

Corn stalk fibers were extracted from corn stalk using sodium hydroxide for textile application. The extraction conditions were optimized on the basis of the quality and quantity of extracted fibers. The optimum conditions were obtained by treating corn stalk with 5 g/L concentration of sodium hydroxide for 60 min at boiling temperature using a 1:50 material-to-liquor ratio. Extracted fibers were bleached and tested for different physical and chemical properties. Besides these properties, the characterization of extracted fibers was carried out by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. SEM was used to study the morphological changes in the raw and bleached fibers. The crystallinity changes of the raw and bleached samples were measured with an X-ray diffractometer by peak height method. FTIR was used to examine the compositional changes in the bleaching process. It was found that raw fibers contained the cellular residues such as lignin and hemicelluloses, which cement the fibers together. The chemical treatments such as alkali and bleaching partially removed hemicelluloses, lignin, and amorphous fractions of cellulose. This led to the gradually increasing crystallinity of the treated fiber. Peak height values were obtained by measuring the transmittance of the spectra through FTIR analysis. Different physical and chemical properties of the extracted corn stalk fibers indicated that it can be used for making biodegradable composite materials.