Cellulose

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03343-y (0123456789().,-volV)
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Development and characterization of eco-sustainable

banana fiber nonwoven material: surface treatment, water
absorbency and mechanical properties
K. Z. M. Abdul Motaleb . Rashed Al Mizan . Rimvydas Milašius

Received: 29 March 2020 / Accepted: 7 July 2020

Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020

Abstract In this study, four types of ecofriendly
non-woven materials were developed from different
parts of bark and leaf of banana plant i.e. outer bark,
middle bark, inner bark (IB) and mid rib (MR) by wet
laid web formation. Fibers were extracted chemically
by treating with NaOH from all the parts. Due to the
very high absorbency of banana fiber, the prepared
non-wovens were treated with water repellent (WR)
chemical for improving their hydrophobicity. The
effects of WR on the physical, mechanical and
morphological properties of the non-wovens were
also investigated. The hydrophobicities of all the
nonwovens were improved remarkably with the
concentration of WR. It took 1.25, 2.69, 4.20 and
4.67 h to absorb a drop of water for OB nonwovens at
a concentration of 1%, 5%, 10% and 20% WR
respectively where, all the untreated nonwovens took
almost zero seconds. Just like OB, all other nonwo-
vens followed exactly the same trend. OB nonwoven
exhibited the highest tensile strength (TS), Elonga-
tion-at-break (EB) and young‘s modulus (YM) of
8.56 Mpa, 12.56% and 215 Mpa respectively where,
K. Z. M. A. Motaleb (&)  R. Milašius
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Design, Kaunas
University of Technology, Studentu˛ 56, 51424 Kaunas,
Lithuania
e-mail: k.motaleb1@ktu.edu
R. A. Mizan
Department of Textile Engineering, BGMEA University
of Fashion and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
IB showed the lowest TS and YM of 1.23 and 67 Mpa
respectively and MR showed the lowest EB of 1.77%.
Although there were no remarkable effects of WR on
tensile properties nevertheless, TS and YM were
increased but EB was decreased to a small extent with
the concentration of WR. The chemical bonding,
morphology of the fiber and nonwovens were also
investigated by FTIR and SEM analysis.
Keywords Banana fiber  Wet-laid nonwoven 
Surface treatment  Water absorbency  Mechanical
properties
Introduction
There is an emerging possibility of eco-sustainable
materials especially based on natural fibers, which
have been studied thoroughly over the years by
numerous scientists. Therefore, understanding the
harmful nature of synthetic fibers, researchers are
always aware for turning away from them and
focusing on the substitute, natural fiber based mate-
rials (John and Thomas 2008; Devi et al. 1997; Rao
et al. 2010). The products from these fibers have
significantly influenced the market with various types
of products including nonwovens, composites and
packaging materials (Khalfallah et al. 2014; Thwe and
Liao 2003; Mohammed et al. 2015; Ilyas et al. 2018;

123

Sanyang et al. 2018; Kargarzadeh et al. 2018).
Moreover, low density, high specific strength and
stiffness, low cost, less absorption of CO2, less
hazardous manufacturing processes, good electrical
resistance, acoustic insulation, low emissions and less
abrasive damage to processing equipment by natural
fiber based materials compared to synthetic fibers are
the advantages that have further kindled this change
(Abral et al. 2019; Ilyas et al. 2019; Thakur and Thakur
2014).
In this case, banana (Musa acuminata), a natural
ligno-cellulosic plant fiber, is collected from the leaf
or pseudo stem of the banana plant which grows
abundantly in tropical areas. The fiber contains
71.08% cellulose, 12.61% hemicellulose, and 7.67%
lignin (Kenned et al. 2020a, b). The pseudo-stem or
leaf of banana tree has no ordinary use after harvesting
the fruits (Uma et al. 2005). The sheath of the stem is
commonly frayed by a knife or by chemical treatment
with eco-friendly substance to get the fiber (Das et al.
2010); it is further washed thoroughly with water.
Virgin pseudo-stem yields about 2–2.25% of fiber
(Surekha et al. 2013). Hence, this fiber is obtained
from an organic plant. Just a little amount of fiber can
meet the human requirement for making home deco-
rations, handcrafted paper, handiworks, satchels,
ropes, and so on (Mohapatra et al. 2010). According
to the anatomy analysis of banana pseudo stem for the
potentiality as reinforcing material it is found that,
fiber bundle distribution is not aligned where the fibers
are containing narrow lignified walls and wide lumens.
They are affected by alkali treatment and split into
single fibers or thicker bundles. The analysis confirms
that, the vast fiber bundle together with vascular strand
surrounded by lumen of leaf sheath exhibits strong
bonding properties when reinforced with polymer
matrix (Kenned et al. 2020a). The structure of cell wall
mainly consists of primary wall, secondary wall,
middle lamellae and cell lumen. Where, primary wall
contains cellulose which provide the strength of the
fiber, secondary wall consists of lignin that increase
the fiber hardness, middle lamella is the combination
of lignin and hemicellulose which work as an inter-
cellular layer connecting with neighboring cell walls
and the free space in the middle of the cell is called
lumen which is used as water storage (Kenned et al.
2020b). Considering the properties, it appears that it
has enough potential for industrial uses which is under
investigation. Number of fibers that have been
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Cellulose
investigated as a potential reinforcement include oil
palm, areca, coir, jute, flax, hemp, ramie, kenaf,
coconut, banana, sisal, and pineapple (Joseph et al.
2002; Saliba et al. 2005). Among them, banana fiber
have also been considered broadly (John et al. 2008;
Mao et al. 2007).
Several researches have been done on the natural
fiber reinforcing polymer composite with the improve-
ment of the properties of composites, in which banana
fiber composites fall under. Most of the researcher
used short banana fiber or, pseudo-stem mat as
reinforcing material in composites (Rao et al. 2010;
Joseph et al. 2002; Pothan et al. 1997; Bhoopathi et al.
2014; Boopalan et al. 2013). Only a few researchers
worked on nonwoven materials from banana fiber.
Sengupta et al. (2019) developed and studied the
properties of needle punched nonwoven from banana
fiber, banana-jute blend and banana-polypropylene
blend. Thilagavathi et al. and Bhuvaneshwari et al.
also developed needle punched banana fiber nonwo-
ven for the application of noise control car interiors
and thermal insulation respectively (Thilagavathi et al.
2010; Bhuvaneshwari and Sangeetha 2018). Thermo-
mechanical and morphological properties of needle
punched non-woven banana fiber reinforced polymer
composites was investigated by Kenned et al. (Kenned
et al. 2020a). But no researcher has worked on the
development of wet-laid nonwoven from different
parts of banana tree. The wet laid nonwoven is
prepared in the water by the formation of a fiber web,
i.e., a thin layer of fibers is prepared in which fibers are
involved by surface cohesion by mechanical locking
with surface roughness followed by regular drying
(Tse et al. 2018; Deng et al. 2018). Wet laid nonwoven
is thin, uniform and possesses excellent hydraulic and
thermal insulation property with lighter but sufficient
strength (Mao et al. 2007; Mao and Russell 2015).
There is no doubt that, bio-materials from natural
fibers have number of advantages which can possibly
trade off aramid fiber, carbon fiber and glass fiber
composites, but they have some disadvantages like
higher moisture absorption, lower strength, greater
variation of properties and lower durability those
resists them to apply in many applications (Lee et al.
2009; Mohanty et al. 2001). Though the higher
absorbency is an advantage for the application like
wiping products, absorbent pads and other flexible
item; but it could be a disadvantage for the application
like packaging materials, one-time food/drink
Cellulose
container, shopping bag, geotextiles, carpet, compos-
ite reinforcement etc. The surface modification by
physical and chemical treatment is a well-known
technique to increase the adhesion among the poly-
mers thus improve strength and hydrophobicity of the
materials (Aslam et al. 2018).
In this study, banana fibers extracted from the
different parts of banana plants and prepared non-
woven materials from them by wet laid web forma-
tion. The inspected mechanical and morphological
properties of the material express its potentiality as
alternative to industrial existing carcinogenic syn-
thetic materials. Absorbency of the nonwoven and
their improvement of hydrophobicity by chemical
treatment were also studied and explained by SEM and
FTIR analysis. Though development of biomaterials
from banana fiber is not new, the development of wet-
laid nonwovens from different parts of banana plant
and their studies on mechanical properties, absorbency
and morphology is a novel work. This was the first part
of our research based on banana fibers, in the next part
we will investigate the wet-laid banana fiber nonwo-
ven reinforced composite materials.
Materials and methods
Materials
A healthy, matured banana tree was collected from a
banana plantation in Gazipur, Bangladesh. Caustic
soda (NaOH) was purchased from Nasir Chemicals
Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh and water repellent chemical
NuvaÒ N2114 liq (perfluoroalkyl acrylic) was pur-
chased from Archroma Bangladesh Ltd. From the
material safety data sheet (MSDS), NuvaÒ N2114 liq
is biodegradable, non-hazard and non-toxic.
Methods
Tree segmentation
Banana tree was semgentated in four catagories (1)
outer bark of the banana tree (2) middle bark of the
banana tree (3) inner bark of the banana tree (4) midrib
of the banana leaf for making four types of nonowoven
materials. All the segments are identified in Fig. 1.
Fiber extraction
After segmentation of banana tree, all the segments
were squeezed by a metal padder roller for dewatering.
These segments were then dried in sunlight for about
15 days. After drying properly all the parts were
combed manually to make finer ribbon like structure
and then cut into a small fragments of 3 cm. 50 g of
these fragments were taken in a beaker and treated
with 15% of NaOH with a temperature of 90 °C for
about 1 h until they become soft. Then the boiled
mixture was kept aside 30 min for cooling and after
that rinsed the mixture carefully to remove sodium
hydroxide and others content. By this way all the
unwanted materials were removed, and fibers were
extracted from the banana bark and rib.
Pulp preparation
The extracted fibers were taken into a blender with 1 L
of water to blend until the fiber reaches in a uniform
pulpy state. Then the pulp mixture was poured in a
mesh filter and rinsed again thoroughly to remove
NaOH leftover. Squeezed the excess water and dried
in sunlight. By this way the banana pulp was prepared.
Fabrication into nonwoven
Nonwovens were prepared by wet laid web formation.
The prepared banana pulps were weighed and taken
into the blender again along with the water with a pulp
water ratio of 1:50 until the pulps were mixed
uniformly. Then the pulp mixture was poured into a
mold constructed with a mesh fabric and wooden
frame in a tub filled with water. After the pulp mixture
was informly distributed all over the mold, it was
moved up from the tub and allowed to drain the water
completely through the mesh. Then the pulp mixture
was transffered onto a felt material and pressed it for
removing the excess water. After that the felt material
was removed and the semi-dried pulp sheet was
transferred onto a smoth steel plate for drying in the
sunlight. The completely dried banana pulp nowoven
material was then calendared by an electrical iron for
making it more flat. Simillar procedures were followed
for all the nonwoven samples from the four different
parts of banana tree mentioned earlier.
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Fig. 1 Cross section of pseudo stem of banana tree (left) and banana leaf (right)

Sample identification Absorbency test

Four categories of samples were prepared from
different parts of banana tree. Thicknesses of samples
were recorded by digital slide calipers. Average results
of three readings from different place along the sample
have taken for measuring each thickness. The thick-
ness of all the samples were measured
0.65 ± 0.05 mm. All types of samples are described
in Table 1.
Application of water repellent chemical
The prepared nonwoven samples were treated with a
water repellent chemical NOVA N2114 liq in different
concentration i.e. 1, 5, 10 and 20 (v/v) % by pad-dry-
cure method. Excess chemicals were squeezed by
padding roller, then dried in oven and after that cured
with a temperature around 160–170 °C for a couple of
minutes.
Water absorbency tests were done by drop and
immersion methods. ASTM TS-018 method was
followed for these tests. For drop tests, a measured
droplet of water was fallen on the material from 1 cm
above the material surface. Time was recorded until
the water drop absorbs completely. For water immer-
sion test, the samples of (1 9 1) cm2 size were cut and
left on water surface. The immersing time of all the
samples were recorded with the help of stopwatch.
Mechanical test
A Universal Testing Machine (Model: H50KS-0404)
was used for investigating all the tensile properties like
TS, EB% and YM at the Institute of Radiation and
Polymer Technology Laboratory, BAEC, Dhaka,
Bangladesh. The specimens were prepared according
to ASTM D638 standard. Crosshead speed 10 mm/
min, gauge length 50 mm were maintained. Equa-
tions (1), (2) and (3) were used for measuring the TS,

Table 1 Sample Types Description Identification

identification
01 Nonwoven from outer bark of banana tree OB
02 Nonwoven from mid bark of banana tree MB
03 Nonwoven from inner bark of banana tree IB
04 Nonwoven from Midrib of Banana leaf MR
05 Untreated raw fiber from outer bark OB(R)
06 Nonwoven with alkali treated outer bark fiber OB(A)
07 Nonwoven with alkali treated outer bark fiber and 10% WR OB(A ? WR)

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Cellulose
EB% and YM respectively (Abdullah-Al-Kafi et al.
2006).
Fmax
TS ¼ ð1Þ
A
where Fmax = Maximum load and A = Cross sectional
area.
DLb
EBð%Þ ¼  100 ð2Þ
L0
where DLb = Extension at break point and L0 = Initial
length of the sample.
dr
YM ¼ ð3Þ
de
where dr = Stress at yield point and de = Strain at
yield point.
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy
It gives quantative information like identifying a
material, following a chemical reaction, providing
information for determining the molecular structure,
elucidating conformational information, or for a host
of other purposes. In this study solid sample of fiber
are tested to get clear understanding of nonwovens
with Cary 630 FTIR spectrometer with co-addition of
32 scans. The sample prepared in powder collected by
scratching of the nonwoven by a saw was placed on the
sample holder and the spectroscopy was carried out.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
A field emission scanning electron microscopy
(FESEM) produces images by scanning a sample with
a focused beam of electrons. The tensile fracture
surface of nonwoven was being prepared for
microstructural analysis. Before place the sample in
test chamber in FSEM it was dried 100 °C for 10 min
in an oven for de-moisturizing. The interfacial local-
ization between fibers in the nonwoven and tensile
fracture surfaces of the nonwoven were examined
using a scanning electron microscope (JEOL JSM
7600F, Japan). The micrographs are presented in the
results and discussion section.
Results and discussion
Absorbency
Water absorbency by drop test
Figure 2a shows the effect of water repellent (WR) on
the water absorbency of all the nonwovens. It is clearly
seen that the WR affects very much on the nonwovens
as it decreases the absorbency significantly. In OB
nonwoven, without WR the water drop is absorbed in
only 2.38 s, where in 1% of WR the time prolongs to
1.25 h. For 5%, 10% and 20% of WR it takes 2.69, 4.2
and 4.67 h respectively to absorb the water drop. All
the nonwovens shows the similar trend as 1% of WR
gives them moderate sustainability of about 0.5–1.5 h,
5% gives them sufficient sustainability of about
2–3.5 h, 10% WR shows excellent sustainability of
about 4–5 h and 20% WR gives nearly same or
slightly increased water repellency as 10% WR. The
maximum water repellency 4.93 h is obtained from
MB nonwoven at a concentration of 20% WR. Some
photographs of water drop (after 5 s from the dropping
time) on the OB, MB, IB and MR nonwoven when
treated with 1%, 5% and 10% WR with untreated
nonwovens are shown in Fig. 3. Visibly it is clear that,
the contact angles on water drops are gradually
increased with concentration of WR. In case of 10%
WR, all the water drops are more circular than others;
having the contact angles of above 90° that makes all
the nonwovens highly water repellent.
Of course, a 2nd order polynomial curve, which is
used, cannot theoretically explain the behavior of
water absorbency because above approximately 15%
of WR, the duration of repellency will not start to
decrease, as is seen in Fig. 2, it is evident. On the other
hand, such curve could give for us a real good
information about first phase of absorbency from 0 till
10% of repellent that also make a possibility to
recommend an optimum concentration of WR by
measuring the influence of WR% on the duration of
water repellency. In our case it is evident that water
repellent has high influence on absorbency only till
10% and above this amount the influence of repellent
is very limited not important for practical usage.
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Fig. 2 a Effect of water repellent on the water absorbency by drop test and b effect of water repellent on the water absorbency by
immersion test

Fig. 3 Photographs of water drop after 5 s of dropping in different nonwovens at different water repellent concentrations

Water absorbency by immersion test
Another test was carried out for water absorbency of
the nonwoven is immersion test. Figure 2b shows the
results of water immersion test and the effect of water
repellent on the water immersion. All the nonwovens
with 20% WR show the maximum repellency as it
took 67.67, 95.41, 98.23 and 91.2 h to immerse for
OB, MB, IB and MR nonwovens respectively. Non-
wovens treated with 10% WR also showed quite close
results to 20% WR as it took 63.78, 84.43, 93.24 and
82.54 h to immerse for OB, MB, IB and MR
nonwovens respectively. Whereas 1% of WR does
not affect so much as it takes only 2.56, 0.91, 1.63 and
2.03 h to immerse for OB, MB, IB and MR nonwo-
vens respectively and the nonwovens without WR
shows similar quick absorption of only few seconds
like drop tests.
From the both drop test and immersion test of water
absorbency, it is clearly found that, untreated nonwo-
vens absorbed water drops without showing any
hydrophobicity as they cannot even sustain more than

123
Cellulose
3 s. This is due to the presence of strong hydrophilic
hydroxyl groups of cellulosic banana fiber. Whereas,
1% and 5% WR makes much changes in water
absorbency; 10% and 20% of WR show dramatically
improvement of water repellency for all the nonwo-
vens and in both cases the limit of WR which could be
proposed for practical usage can be fixed as 10%—
above this amount the duration of water repellency
increases in a very limited level. Though all the
samples showed quite close hydrophobic properties,
but MR nonwoven showed maximum hydrophobicity
among others.
This is because, the WR chemical is a hydrophobic
agent, which has perfluoroalkyl acrylic chemicals. The
existence of WR agent on cotton fabrics was already
proven by the appearance of Fluorine in FTIR. Thus,
after completing the pad-dry-cure process, perfluoro
side chains changed to almost crystalline structures by
curing process to achieve optimal water repellency
which is also found by Schindler et al. (Schindler and
Hauser 2004). The WR chemicals usually form a
coating on the materials and reduces the surface
energy of the nonwovens, consequently, do not permit
the water to adsorb and spread on the surface. The
more conc. of chemicals leads the higher density of the
coating resulting increased water repellency. It can
also be explained by Cassie–Boxter theory on Lotus
effect which describes that the rougher the surface the
more air-trap on the contact area between surface and
water. As WR crosslinks in amorphous region of
cellulose leading lower flexibility and rougher surface
(which is also explain in SEM section), that creates
more air-trap on the surface and make them more
hydrophobic (Bae et al. 2009; Chowdhury 2018).
Mechanical properties
Tensile strength
Figure 4 depicts the tensile strength (TS) properties of
the nonwoven materials and the effect of water
repellent (WR) finish on them. The highest tensile
strength 8.56 MPa is obtained in the nonwoven from
outer bark (OB) and the lowest tensile strength
1.23 MPa is obtained in the nonwoven from inner
bark (IB). Where MB and MR nonwoven exhibited
6.33 and 1.77 MPa of TS respectively.
The effect of water repellent on the tensile strength
of nonwovens is considerable. There is a increase in
the TS after the application of WR for all the
nonwovens. The maximum 55.23% increase of TS is
found in MR nonwoven where, OB, MB and IB
nonwovens are found 14.83%, 21.8% and 27.64%
increase of TS respectively at the WR concentration of
20% in compare to the untreated nonwovens with the
coefficient of varriation percentages (CV%) of less
than 9 for all the nonwovens. So, it is possible to stay
that all changes are statistically significant.
Elongation at break percentage
Figure 5 shows the elongation properties of all the
nonwoven samples. The maximum 12.56% elongation
at break (EB) is found in OB nonwoven. 9.65%, 3.82%
and 1.77% elongations are found in MB, IB and MR
nonwoven respectively. There is no significant effect
WR chemicals on EB% of all the nonwovens. A very
little declination of EB% is found even when treated
with 20% WR like 11.17%, 16.73%, 12.3% and
12.42% for OB, MB, IB and MR nonwovens respec-
tively in compare with the untreated nonwovens with
the CV% of less than 8 for all the nonwovens and also
are statistically significant.
Young’s modulus
The Young’s Modulus (YM) of all the nonwovens and
the effect of water repellent on them is shown in
Fig. 6. Like TS of nonwovens, Young’s modulus
shows the similar trend as OB nonwoven shows the
highest modulus of 215 MPa and IB nonwoven shows
the lowest modulus of 67 MPa. MB and MR nonwo-
ven shows the modulus of 165 MPa and 85 MPa
respectively. There is an influence of water repellent
on modulus of the nonwovens as it increases with
increase of the concentration of WR. In case 20% of
WR, the modulus is increased 26.05%, 32.73%,
62.69% and 61.18% for OB, MB, IB and MR
nonwovens respectively in compare to the untreated
nonwovens with the CV% of less than 12 for all the
nonwovens (also statistically significant).
The mechanical properties like TS, EB% and YM
all shows almost similar trend for all the nonwovens.
OB nonwoven shows the highest and IB shows the
lowest numbers in case of TS, EB and YM. This was
expected as the outer layer of the banana bark is harder
than the other layers. So, the fibers extracted from the
outer bark have more strength than others. Although
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Fig. 4 Tensile strength of different samples of untreated nonwoven (left) and effect of water repellent on the tensile strength of
nonwoven (right)

Fig. 5 Elongation at break percentage of different samples of untreated nonwoven (left) and effect of water repellent on the elongation
percentage of nonwoven (right)

Fig. 6 Young’s modulus of different samples of untreated nonwoven (left) and effect of water repellent on the Young’s modulus of
nonwoven (right)

the midrib of the banana leaf looks hard but after
chemical extraction it gives weak fibers thus the
nonwoven doesn’t give much strength and modulus,
but they are better than the IB nonwovens.
The effects of WR on the tensile properties aren’t
remarkable but considerable. The properties like TS
and YM are increased with the concentration of WR
but, the EB% are decreased in a small amount. This is
due to the WR chemical form cross link with O–H
group of banana fibers in the amorphous region and
create a larger network among the molecules that
makes the material more crystalline but, less flexible.
Consequently, increased the properties like TS and
YM and decreased the properties like EB%. Even after
curing of WR treated nonwovens, the perfluoro side
chains changed to almost crystalline structures to
achieve the water repellency, this may also increase
the crystallinity of whole materials and increase the
TS, YM rather decrease the EB% same time
(Schindler and Hauser 2004). Furthermore, due to
fiber surface treatment mark a rougher fiber surface
make it advantageous for mechanical locking with
other element, leading to higher strength but lower
elongation of the nonwovens (Wang et al. 2008; Bae

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et al. 2009; Chowdhury 2018). This phenomenon is
also evident in SEM analysis
Characterization
According to the above discussion, it is clearly found
that OB nonwoven shows best mechanical properties
than all other nonwovens. Therefore, OB nonwovens
were considered to characterize by FTIR (Fourier-
transform infrared spectroscopy) and SEM (Scanning
electron microscope) in different stages of surface
modifications. Samples are identified in Table 1.
FTIR spectroscopic analysis
IR spectra analyses of OB(R), OB(A) and OB(A ?
WR) are shown in Fig. 7. From the figure, the
untreated fiber OB(R) and alkali treated banana fiber
OB(A) shown almost similar absorption peak rather
than the difference in the peak intensity. In descrip-
tion, the major peaks are found at wavenumber
3400 cm-1, 2923 cm-1, 1632 cm-1, 1464 cm-1,
1423 cm-1, and 1367 cm-1, 1314 cm-1,
1152 cm-1, 1098–1018 cm-1, corresponds respec-
tively to the –OH stretch H-bonded, CH2(methylene)
asymmetric strong stretch, for aromatic C=C in plane
alkenes (lignin), CH2 symmetric strong stretch,
Methyl C–H asymmetric and wagging medium defor-
mation, C–H in plane bend, C–OH stretch and ester C–
O. The entire characteristics peak observed due to the
presence of natural mineral, oil, and wax in the
cellulosic fiber. In the same way, it is revealing that the
Fig. 7 FTIR spectroscopy of OB nonwovens in different stages
of surface modification
all respective peak is in lower intensity in OB(A) than
that of OB(R). The reason because a strong sodium
hydroxide (NaOH) treatment might remove lignin,
hemicelluloses and other alkali soluble compounds
from the surface of the fibers to increase the numbers
of reactive hydroxyl groups on the fiber surface
available for H-bonding. Other peaks are found at
1734 cm-1 for C=O aldehyde group which was also
removed in the alkali treated fiber. Also, the Primary
or secondary OH in-plane bend was removed by alkali
treatment for the absence of the peak 1229 cm-1 in the
alkali treated fiber. This can prove that the hydroxyl
group can be soluble in alkali treatment.
However, in OB(A ? WR), some exceptional peak
was observed at 2843 cm-1 due to the presence of O–
CH3 methoxy and C–H stretch, this reveals the
application of organic compounds like water-repellent
finish to the alkali treated fiber. Furthermore, the
absorption peaks at 655 cm-1 belong to the deforma-
tion vibrations of the –CF3, which specifies that the
fluorine has been introduced into the fiber and the
intensity also represents the countable amount of WR.
Perfluoro methylene (symmetric –CF2 stretch
1199 cm-1) groups were also observed in the fiber.
Also, other peaks were found at 1734 cm-1 for
aldehyde group which was removed in the alkali
treated fiber but, appears again. This is a message of
adding such group in the fiber surface via this
treatment. In addition, the highest intensity of the
entire absorption peak occurred in case of OB(A ?
WR), which indicates the presence of highest amount
of all groups that were present in the raw fiber
including H-bonded hydroxyl group. This phe-
nomenon supports the increment of the hydrophobic-
ity of the fiber greater than that of natural conditions.
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis
The fiber morphology of different stages of OB
nonwovens were observed by SEM. Figure 8a shows
the SEM photograph raw fiber. It can observe from the
figure that the fibers extracted are composed of several
elementary organic materials that filled the natural
pore of the fiber. Though, it can also produce a slight
rougher surface. In addition, the fiber is in bundle form
rather than that of in single fibrillar condition.
However, the fiber bundle also has a greater amount
of disorientation in its morphology, which indicates
the amorphous state of the fiber. The microscopic view
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Fig. 8 SEM photographs of a raw OB banana fiber, b alkali treated OB banana fiber, c alkali treated OB nonwoven and d alkali treated
OB nonwoven with 10% WR

of the banana fiber also clearly indicates the rougher
surface, void, natural convolution to its surface. This is
advantageous for entanglement of fiber, when the fiber
is jotted down, especially for non-woven fabric
manufacturing.
Figure 8b shows the alkali treated banana fiber.
From this figure it is obvious that the alkaline
treatment of fiber had effectively cleaned the fiber
surface and had increased the fiber surface roughness.
The removal of impurities like oil, wax also resulted in
the separation of fiber strands and increases the
interfibrillar pore. As a result, extra feasible anchoring
points for mechanical interlocking with fiber to fiber.
Formation of elongated structure and fibrillated
microfibrils are quite evident which provides more
exposed area and better interlocking sites as shown in
Fig. 8c which represents the SEM of alkali treated OB
nonwoven on tensile fracture surface.
The SEM analysis continued to the tensile fracture
surface of OB(A ? WR), another surface chemical
treatment of water-repellent finish on the of nonwoven
fabric. Figure 8d discloses that the WR finish creating
a thin coating on the surface of the fiber rather than fill
the pores of the fiber due to their very low molecular
weight. Filling of fibers pores could be an obstacle for
the fiber entanglements. But here, the observation of
fiber entanglement in the fabric remains the same as
they followed to same fabrication technique.
Conclusion
In this experimental study, banana fibers were
extracted chemically by NaOH from 4 different parts
of banana plant i.e. (1) outer bark, (2) middle bark, (3)
inner bark, (4) mid rib; and developed nonwovens
from them by wet laid web formation. From all the
studies, the following conclusions have been drawn.
1. From the fiber morphology it is found that, alkali
treated banana fiber gives more anchoring points
for mechanical interlocking with fiber to fiber due
to removal of impurities like oil and wax. There-
fore, this study suggests the use of alkali treated
banana fiber prior to making nonwoven materials.

123
Cellulose
2. From the drop and immersion tests of water
absorbency it is found that the absorbency of
banana fiber is very high as it takes almost zero
seconds to absorb a drop or, to immerse in a beaker
of water. But the surface treatment with WR can
improve their hydrophobicity dramatically. It
takes about 4–5 h to absorb a drop and more than
60 h to immerse in a beaker of water when treated
with 10% WR. As 20% WR treatment doesn’t
influence so-much in perspective of the concen-
tration amount, this study recommended 10% is
the optimum dose of WR treatment.
3. OB nonwoven shows the highest mechanical
properties having TS of 8.56 MPa, EB of
12.56% and YM of 215 MPa among all others
where IB nonwoven shows the lowest mechanical
properties. Effects of WR on the mechanical
properties is not much but it increases the strength
and decreases elongation due to crosslinking of
WR chemical with banana fibers in the amorphous
region.
4. The FTIR and SEM analysis prove the elimination
of impurities from the raw fiber after alkali
treatment, interlocking of fibers in the nonwoven,
presence of WR chemical and their crosslinking
with the fibers.
Thus, a biodegradable, light weight and ecofriendly
nonwoven is developed from banana fiber by a simple
process which exhibit excellent hydrophobicity,
enough strength with less environmental impact and
can be used as alternative in industrial existing non-
biodegradable one-time synthetic wear, synthetic
composite, synthetic insulator and synthetic bag.
Future study will develop and analyze the composite
materials reinforced by these developed nonwovens.
Funding Not applicable.
Availability of data material Not applicable.Code
availability Not applicable.
Permission for collecting samples The authors clar-
ify that the plant samples were collected with appro-
priate permissions from the authorities of the farm.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no
conflicts of interest.
Consent to participate Not applicable.
Consent for publication Not applicable.
Ethics approval Not applicable.
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