CHLORINE DIOXIDE TREATMENT OF SISAL FIBRE: SURFACE LIGNIN AND ITS INFLUENCES ON FIBRE SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS AND INTERFACIAL BEHAVIOUR OF SISAL FIBRE/PHENOLIC RESIN COMPOSITES

This paper describes an investigation of the influences of chlorine dioxide treatment on fibre surface lignin. The fibre surface characteristics and the interfacial behaviour of the sisal fibre/phenolic resin composites were also studied by SEM, AFM, and XPS. The results show that the surface of the untreated fibre contains a large amount of lignin with granular structure and non-granular structure. The surface lignin concentration is up to 51% for the untreated fibre, and then it decreases to 24% and 20% for fibres treated with 1.5% and 2.0% chlorine dioxide, respectively. The removal of lignin from the fibre surface can enhance the interfacial strength of the composites, giving rise to increases by 36% and 28% in tensile strength and internal bonding strength. These results indicate that the surface properties of single sisal fibres can be tailored to improve the fibre/resin interface. Chlorine dioxide treatment has potential for surface modification of sisal fibre in engineering the interfacial behaviour of composites.