Chemical Treatment of Okra Bast Fiber

CHEMICAL Treatment OF OKRA BAST FIBRE

Okra bast fibre is a lignocellulosic fibre, which obtained from okra bast plant that grows everywhere abundantly in Bangladesh. Therefore, okra fiber can play an important role in the field of our national economy in finding various applications. They are generally biodegradable but do not possess the necessary and sufficient properties desirable for engineering or commodity plastics. Besides, like other vegetable fibers, okra fiber possess few weak points i.e., rub resistance, colour fastness, wash and wear properties and very much prone to creasing, possibly because of high degree of orientation of cellulose in the fibre. This defect of creasing of cellulosic fiber may be remedied remarkably by the crease-resisting process in which resins are synthesized within the cellulosic materials in different proportions. In order to improve the textile properties of okra fiber it is an urgent need to improve several properties such as whiteness, softness, washing, dyeing behavior, colour fastness, light resistance, thermal resistance, etc. So an attempt has been made to improve those characteristics of okra bast fibre through chemical modification and dyeing.

The chemical modification means to change the cellulose structure of okra fiber. The chemical structure of cellulose can be changed in three ways:
i) By preparing a derivative, e.g. an ester or ether
ii) By preparing a crosslinked cellulose i.e. a network structure or
iii) By preparing branched cellulose i.e. a graft copolymer of cellulose (grafting process).

The chemical modification of okra bast fibre with acrylonitrile under the influence of catalytic action induces cross-linking of resins on to okra fibre. The sequence of reactions would be expected to take place, ultimately leading to notable weight gain and changes in the chemical nature of fibre.