Characterization of natural cellulosic fibers from Yucca aloifolia L. leaf as potential reinforcement of polymer composites

In this work lignocellulosic fibers were obtained from Yucca aloifolia L. leaves and their chemical, morphological, thermal and mechanical properties were studied. The fibers were pullout from the leaves and characterized by infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), chemical characterization, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), single fiber tensile tests and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The cellulose crystallinity index found was 69.43%. The fibers presented a high cellulose content, ~ 52.5%, and they are thermally stable until 193.4 °C. The tensile test for single fibers showed average results for the tensile strength of 800 MPa, Young's modulus of 39 GPa, and 2% strain at failure. Morphological analysis indicated the presence of a large number of parenchymal cells and not cellulosic constituents in fiber surface. These results indicated that Yucca aloifolia L. fibers have potential to application in polymeric matrices as fibrous reinforcement material.