The influence of extraction methods on the properties of tropical sisal plant fibers: Agave sisalana

Plant fibers are gradually replacing synthetic fibers in reinforcing composites because of their availability, renewability, lightweight and good engineering properties. The study aimed to characterize tropical sisal plant fibers obtained using two distinct methods; water retting and chemical extraction and conclude on which of the two methods is best for application of these fibers in marine-based composites. Fiber from sisal plant has chemical composition of cellulose (65.2 and 64%), hemicellulose (12.4 and 14.5%), and lignin (10.2 and 11.4%) contents for the chemical and water extraction methods, respectively. It has density of 1330 and 1090 kg/m³ and elongation of 8.99 and 2.88% for chemical and water extraction, respectively. In all, chemically extracted fibers show properties similar to most of that obtained by previous authors showing fibers from tropical sisal fibers extracted using chemical method can be used for composites for marine structures thus reducing environmental impact of synthetic fibers.