Materials and Design 30 (2009) 2741–2744

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Materials and Design

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Short Communication

Characterisation and utilization of natural coconut fibres composites

Wang Wei, Huang Gu *
School of Textiles, Tianjin Polytechnic University, 63 Chenglin Road, Hedong District, Tianjin 300160, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Two thousand fibres were randomly taken from a coir fibre stack, characters of the fibres were analysed.
Received 29 August 2008 It was shown that length of the fibres was in the range between 8 and 337 mm. The fibres amount with
Accepted 3 November 2008 the length range of 15–145 mm was 81.95% of all measured fibres. Weight of fibres with the length range
Available online 13 November 2008
of 35–225 mm accounted for 88.34% of all measurement. The average fineness of the coir fibres was
27.94 tex. Longer fibres usually had higher diameters.
Composite boards were fabricated by using a heat press machine with the coir fibre as the reinforce-
ment and the rubber as matrix. Tensile strength of the composites was investigated.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Because of their biodegradable nature, natural fibres have been
increasingly adopted to replace synthetic polymers in the indus-
trial applications [1–3]. Among the various natural polymers, coir
fibre has shown a great potential for use in composite structures
[4–6].
Coir fibres are derived from the coconut husks, they may be
classified according to the peeled off time from the husks. The
husks of fully ripened coconuts yield brown coir fibre, it is highly
resistance to abrasion. Brown fibres are primarily used in brushes,
floor mats and upholstery padding. On the other hand, white coir
fibres come from the husks of coconuts shortly before they ripen,
this fibre is softer and less strong than brown fibre. White coir fibre
is usually woven into mats or twisted into twine or rope. About 55
billion of coconuts are harvested annually in the world, only 15% of
the husk fibres are actually recovered for use. Most husks are aban-
doned in the nature, this is a waste of natural resources and a
course of environmental pollution.
Sri Lanka and India are considered to be the major coir fibre pro-
ducers in the world. Most of the coir fibres produced in China are
from the subtropical provinces of Hainan and Guangdong. Coir fi-
bre may be used as the reinforcement material in the composite
production [7,8]. Some research works have been carried out in
this field [9–11]. Coir fibres may be decomposed in 20–30 years
in the nature, it may be regarded as an environmentally friendly
material. To develop its industrial employ, thorough understanding
of the coir fibre is necessary.
In this research, brown coir fibre from the Hainan province of
China was analysed. The SEM image of the fibre, tensile strength,
length, fineness, weight distribution were revealed. Composites
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 22 24528528; fax: +86 22 24528287.
E-mail address: Huanglll@public.tpt.tj.cn (G. Huang).
were fabricated by using coir fibre as the reinforcement and the
rubber as matrix. The tensile strength of the produced boards
was tested. It was found that the temperature during heat press
process had no significant influence on the composites as far as
the tensile strength was concerned.
2. Experimental
Ripe coconut husks from Hainan province of China were dipped
in water for 5 months. This process is called retting, which can par-
tially decompose the pulp on the shell. So the fibre can be removed
easily from the husk. After retting, the husks were beaten with a
hammer. Coir fibres were ripped from the husks and separated
with a comb. After drying at the room temperature, the coir fibres
were combed with a cotton carding frame for several times to fur-
ther separate the fibres into an individual state, or as close to that
as possible. Then a sieve was used to remove shorter fibres (i.e.
<5 mm) and impurities. The fibres were treated in the condition
room (temperature 20 °C, RH 65%) for 48 h before the
measurements.
Two thousand coir fibres were randomly taken from a stack.
Tensile strength, fibre length, fineness and weight were measured,
respectively. The SEM image of the coir fibre surface was shown.
The length of each fibre was measured at the room temperature
by a graduated scale with the accuracy of 1 mm. In this experi-
ment, the length was referred to the distance between the two
ends when the fibre was extended but not elongated.
The fineness of the coir fibre was measured based on the ASTM
D7025. The test was carried out by using the Model Y171 Fibre
Fineness tester (No. 7 Textile Equipment Factory, Shanghai, PR Chi-
na). By estimating the mass per unit length, the tex value of the
coir fibre was conducted.
The combed coir nets were laminated with predetermined
thickness, meanwhile rubber granule was spread between adjacent

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2008.11.002
2742 W. Wang, G. Huang / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 2741–2744

Table 1 because of the uneven diameter of the coir fibres. The greatest ten-
Procedure of the composite fabrication. sile strength was found to be 1124 N and the smallest 282 N. The
Step Pressure and temperature control average tensile modulus is 5.2 GPa.
1 The heat press was pre-heated to 60 °C, put on the coir net and rubber
powder 3.3. Fibre length distribution
2 The temperature was raised to 100 °C, the pressure was 0 MPa
3 The pressure was raised to 5 MPa, the temperature was raised to certain In this investigation, the shortest fibre was found to be 8 mm,
degree (130, 140, 150, or 160 °C)
4 The pressure was raised to 15 MPa, the situation was kept for 20 min
and the longest 337 mm. The measured fibres were put into corre-
5 The pressure was lowered to 0 MPa, the temperature was lowered to 26 °C sponding groups according to their length. In the first group the fi-
(the room temperature) bres characterised by a length lower than 20 mm were collected.
6 The composite board was removed from the heat press The second group contained fibres with the lengths of 21–
30 mm. Each following group contained fibres with the length
10 mm longer than the previous one. Altogether 29 groups were
layers. The natural rubber used in this investigation was provided
involved in this experiment. It should be noted that the first group
by Boyeo Co. Ltd. (Hainan, PR China). The Tg of the rubber is 72 °C,
contained fibres with the lengths between 8 and 20 mm, and the
and its liquefaction and decomposition temperatures are 130 and
group No. 29 contained fibres with a length between 291 and
200 °C, respectively. The volume fraction of the coir fibre was care-
337 mm. Really only one fibre with the length of 337 mm was in
fully controlled during the mixing of the two components.
this group.
Model YTD71-45A Heat Press (Tianjin Machinery Corporation,
Fig. 2 presents the length distribution of the coir fibres. To be
PR China) was selected to fabricate the composites. The fabrication
simple and clear, the medium length in each group is presented
procedure was shown in Table 1.
in the X axis. For example, the second group is represented by
Specimens prepared for the tensile strength test were cut and
25 mm, the third group by 35 mm. The first group is something
the measurements were carried out according to the Chinese Stan-
special, its length range is 8–20 mm, 15 mm is used as the medium
dard GB1447-1983, based on ASTM D3039. The tensile strength
length of this group.
was tested by using an INSTRON 3369 Universal Testing Machine
Fig. 2 shows that longer coir fibres only take a small portion of
(United States). The specimens were cut in a rectangular form with
the total number. Most of the fibres are within the shorter and
the length of 200 mm and width 50 mm. The average thickness of
medium length. Actually, fibres with the length of 15–145 mm is
the specimens was 4.753 mm. The distance between the two
for 81.95% of the total number. The greatest number belongs to
clampers before the test was kept to 150 mm, the testing speed
the group of 55 mm with the fibre end of 184.
was 2 mm/min.
3.4. Fibre weight distribution
3. Results and analysis
The total weight of fibres in each group was measured by using
3.1. Image analysis an electric scale with the accuracy of 1 mg. The total weight of the
2000 fibres was 5.069 g. Weight percentage of each group is given
Fig. 1 presents the image of the appearance of the coir fibre. in Fig. 3
Fig. 1 illustrates that the surface of the coir fibre is covered with From Fig. 3 it is possible to notice that greater weight is distrib-
a layer of substances, these may include pectin, lignin and other uted in fibres with the medium length. Weight of fibres with the
impurities. The surface was not smooth, spread with nodes and
irregular stripes.

3.2. Fibre tensile strength

One hundred fibres were randomly taken from a coir stack, ten-
sile strength was measured. The average tensile strength was
560.1 N. Greater variation was noticed among the tensile values

Fig. 2. Length distribution of the coir fibres.

Fig. 1. SEM image of the coir fibre. Fig. 3. Weight distribution of the coir fibres.
 W. Wang, G. Huang / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 2741–2744 2743

lengths of 35–225 mm accounts for 88.34% of the total measure-
ment. It is possible to reveal that the curve in Fig. 3 is shifted a little
towards the longer fibre side compared to that of Fig. 2, this may
contribute to the fibre weight difference. Longer fibres usually have
thicker diameter, resulting in a greater weight.
When the fibre length is between 155 and 225 mm, fibres
amount is fewer in corresponding groups, since these fibres are
usually longer and coarser, weight in these groups is also showed
a higher value.
3.5. Fibre fineness distribution
The total fibre length and weight in each group were used to
calculate the fineness (tex) of the coir fibre. The results are summa-
rized in Fig. 4.
From Fig. 4 it is possible to see that the fineness of fibres below
the length of 145 mm is somewhere around 20 tex, for those in the
length range of 155–255 mm the fineness raises to about 40 tex.
Even greater fineness is noticed beyond the length of 255 mm.
The average fineness of the coir fibre involved in this investigation
is 27.94 tex. The research demonstrates that the long coir fibres
usually have higher diameters.
3.6. Tensile strength of the coir fibre reinforced composites
Fig. 5 shows a sample of the coir/rubber composite board.
It is evident that the sample is non homogeneous. Coarse and
fine fibres are not distributed evenly. This can influence the tensile
strength greatly. Fibre volume fraction was 60% in the composites.
Each composite board fabricated in the heat press was cut into five
specimens. Tensile strength testing results are presented in Table
2.
Each datum in the table is the mean of five measurements. Dif-
ferent temperature is employed for each composite board group
during the fabrication (i.e. 130, 140, 150 and 160 °C). Rubber prop-
erties have been investigated under various temperatures [12,13].
It has been reported that in the range of 130–210 °C, modulus of
the natural rubber decreases with increasing temperature [14]. It
is possible to estimate that higher temperature would induce high-
er rubber fluidity, which would lead to a better penetration of the
liquid rubber among the coir fibres, resulting in a better combina-
tion between the fibre and the matrix. Even more the wettability
between the rubber and coir fibre would improve with increased
temperature because of the greater rubber fluidity. This would in-
crease the tensile strength. The tensile modulus of the specimens
has been calculated and the average value is 115.3 MPa. Statistic
calculation was carried out on the data of the tensile measurement,
the results show that there is no significant difference among the
four groups. The reason may contribute to the limited temperature
difference among the four groups. Heat press temperature with
130 °C would be recommended for economical consideration.
Statistic calculation between the two extreme cases (samples
No. 2 and 3) is shown in Table 3.
Table 3 shows that the tensile strength difference between
samples No. 2 and No. 3 is not statistically significant.
Composites with various fibre volume fractions were fabricated
according to the procedure listed in Table 1.The highest tempera-
ture used for the heat press was 130 °C, tensile strength of the
composites was tested, results are listed in Table 4.
Each datum in the table is based on five determinations. The ta-
ble possibly shows that the highest tensile strength belongs to the
sample No. 2, in which the fibre volume fraction is 60%. Compared
to sample No. 2, significant strength decrease is found in the case
of No. 1. In this case one may imagine that the melted rubber can-
not reach each of the coir fibre surfaces because of the smaller
amount of matrix. When experiencing foreign stress, the matrix
cannot transfer the stress effectively, the tensile strength of the
composite would be reduced.
In the cases of samples No. 3 and No. 4, smaller coir fibre vol-
ume fraction is employed, since coir fibres serve as the primary
reinforcement in the material, the reduced fibre amount would re-
sult in a lowered tensile strength. Compared to sample No. 2, the
tensile strength decrease in the two cases is statistically significant.

Table 2
Tensile strength of the composites.

Sample Specimen Tensile Elongation at Temperature of

number thickness (mm) strength break (%) heat press (°C)
(MPa)
1 4.652 140.2 17.6 130
2 4.672 145.3 19.3 140
3 4.624 138.8 20.5 150
Fig. 4. Coir fibre fineness distribution. 4 5.065 141.6 18.8 160

Table 3
Analysis of variance of the tensile strength between samples No. 2 and No. 3.

Source of variation Sum of squares d.f. Mean squares F F(0.05) F(0.01)

Treatment 62.5 1 62.5 0.79 5.32 11.26
Testing 632 8 79
Total 694.5 9

Table 4
Tensile strength of composites with various fibre volume fractions.

Sample Rubber/ Sample Tensile strength Elongation at

number coir (%) thickness (mm) (MPa) break (%)
1 30/70 4.753 120.3 12.2
2 40/60 4.652 140.2 17.6
3 50/50 4.820 124.7 20.8
4 60/40 4.625 96.7 26.4
Fig. 5. The coir/rubber composite board.
2744 W. Wang, G. Huang / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 2741–2744
Increased trend of elongation at break is observed with
decreased fibre volume fraction, which may contribute to the
increased amount of rubber in the composites.
4. Summary
Brown coir fibres from Hainan province (PR China) have been
analysed. The longest fibre is found to be 337 mm and the shortest
8 mm. 81.95% of the fibres is in the length range of 15–145 mm.
Weight of fibres with the lengths of 35–225 mm accounts for
88.34% of the total fibres involved in the investigation.
The average fineness of the coir fibre measured in this investi-
gation is 27.94 tex. The fineness of fibres with lengths below
145 mm is somewhere around 20 tex. In the case of 155–
255 mm, the fibre fineness doubles to about 40 tex. Longer fibre
is usually thicker and thus a greater tex value.
The coir/rubber composite with the fibre volume fraction of 60%
was fabricated by using the heat press technique. Temperature
variation (130–160 °C) during the heat press process has no signif-
icant influence on the composites as far as tensile strength was
concerned.
Coir fibre volume fraction of 60% would be the better choice in
this investigation. Lower or higher than 60% of the fibre volume
fraction may reduce the tensile strength of the composites.
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