Effect of liquid smoke on surface morphology and tensile strength of sago fiber

This study aims to identify the effect of liquid smoke treatment on surface morphology and tensile strength of sago fiber (SF), including chemical reactions during the treatment. The proposed study is divided into two steps, fiber treatment and property tests. The first treatment, SF was immersion in the liquid smoke solution for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 hours, then dried for 1 hour which then characterized SEM, universal machine testing machine, X-Ray diffractometer (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR). The acetic acid in liquid smoke reacts with fiber to form fiber-liquid and H2O compounds. The heating process degrades H2O content in fibers and decomposes C and C elements to close together forming strong chemical bonds so that the fiber morphology become rough, porous, grooved and increasing the tensile strength of the fiber. But excessive heating treatment makes fibers more fragile because the H2O elements degrade too low. Dominant percentage of SF crystallization occurred after 4 and 5 hours, 64.7 and 66.9 %, respectively among other durations, a significant increase of tensile strength 50.813 MPa was achieved by 1-hour immersion in liquid smoke. Hence, as alternative to improve the mechanical characteristics of SF, immersion in liquid smoke should be applied. Furthermore, studies of similar treatment on other natural fibers can also be considered in the future