The potential use of fibres derived from wild Abyssinia bananas in reinforcing polymer composites

This study systematically characterised wild Abyssinia bananas (WABs) fibre properties such as physical, chemical, thermal, structural, mechanical, and morphology.WAB fibre properties were investigated using sophisticated equipment such as TGA, XRD, FTIR, UTM and SEM.The observed result revealed that the fibres have a diameter of 163.3 27 m and 1.31 0.09 g/cm 3 of density.Results obtained from TGA present the thermal stability of fibre at 237.16C, activation energy was 84.80 kJ/mol, and percentages of chemical components such as cellulose (52.14%), hemicellulose (12.91%) and lignin (9.10%).Tensile strength was 493 122.5 MPa, the tensile modulus 47 8.8 GPa, and strain at failure was 1.07 0.17%.The experimental findings indicate that WAB fibres have the potential to serve as effective reinforcing materials for lightweight applications in polymers, including epoxy, polyester and vinyl esters composites.