Study on structure and thermal stability properties of cellulose fibers from rice straw

Cellulose fibers were extracted from the rice straw by a mechanical-high pressure steam technique. The structure, chemical composition and thermal properties of cellulose fibers were investigated by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). FTIR analysis and chemical composition of fibers demonstrate that this mechanical-high pressure steam treatment can result in partial removal of hemicellulose and lignin from the structure of fibers. WAXD results reveal that this results in improved crystallinity of the fibers. The rice straw fibers are determined to have diameters in the range of 5-10 mu m. After mechanical-high pressure steam treatments, the thermal properties of the rice straw fibers from the TGA results are found to increase dramatically after treatments. The degradation temperature of the rice straw fibers reaches over 280 degrees C, which is reasonably promising for the use of these fibers in reinforced-polymer composites. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.