Assessment of natural cellulosic fibers derived from Senna auriculata for making light weight industrial biocomposites

Cellulose fibers are extracted from Senna auriculata legume and they are characterized using chemical analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The cellulose content of the fibers is obtained as 59.6% and their density is 0.3708 g/cm(3). X-ray diffraction studies show that the crystalline index and crystallite size of the fibers as 49.6% and 2.75 nm respectively. Thermal studies reveal that the degradation of fibers takes place beyond 205 degrees C. SEM observation shows that the fiber is made up of densely packed cellulose fibrils and the surface of the fiber contains gummy polysaccharides. Moisture content present in the fibers is 27.36%. AFM studies show that these fibers are porous and the average roughness is 75.997 nm making them suitable for tribological applications. Energy dispersive analysis exhibits an O/C ratio as 0.3023. Statistical analysis done using student's t-test show no significant difference in height and cellulose content of Senna auriculata scrubs of same age group but significant differences in cellulose content could be seen between scrubs of different ages. Results obtained prove that these cellulosic fibers can be used as effective reinforcements for polymers and can be promising candidates for manufacturing light weight components.