Effective utilization of fibre extracted from the waste neem tree twigs—a step towards sustainable practices

Increased mechanical characteristics and biodegradability in polymer composites can be achieved by using nanocellulose, the crystalline domain produced from renewable cellulosic sources. In this work, a natural fibre was extracted from neem twigs, followed by a 15% NaOH chemical treatment for up to 120 min. This work aims to identify a novel reinforcement from natural fibre for making composite material and reduce the usage of synthetic fibre reinforcement. The characterisation of neem twig fibre (NTF) was analysed from the XRD, FTIR, SEM, and EDX experiments. Also, the tensile behaviour of this natural fibre was calculated before and after alkali treatment showing the difference that happened due to this chemical treatment as a result of 8.97 MPa and was identified for treated NTF, which is 9% more than the untreated NTF. The thermal stability and mass loss under variation of temperature were calculated from TGA and were given significant retention under different temperatures, which means the initial mass loss of NTF started at 283 °C (glassy region), crystalline size is 0.68 nm, and then the dimensional analysis and density of treated neem fibre were given the positive influence to make the structural application.