Morphological, Structural and Thermal Properties of Silane-treated Date Palm Fibers

This investigation aims to estimate the contribution of fluoro and non-fluorosilane to the surface properties of raw date palm fibers (DPFs). The raw DPFs were successfully functionalize using fluoro [trichloro(1h,1h,2h,2h-perfluorooctyl)] and non-fluorosilane [octadecyltrichloro] coupling agents using liquid-phase silanization method. The structure, chemical composition and thermal properties of functionalization have been proved by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). TGA and XRD results indicate the reduction of the amorphous cellulose as an end result in silane modified DPF a have higher fraction of crystalline cellulose. The thermal properties of DPFs from the TGA results showed an increase dramatically after the treatment with silane coupling agents. The degradation temperature of the DPFs reached above 400°C with fluoro and non-fluorosilane, which is reasonably promising for using these fibers in hydrophobic polymer composites as reinforcing material.