Abstract

This research was conducted to analyze the alkali treatment in improving the quality of coir fiber. Study coir fiber done by specifying the physical characteristics and methods of making specimen, mechanical treatment and testing the tensile strength of single fiber. Determine the characteristics physical of the fiber is done by observing and measuring the diameter of the fiber directly, testing the density and moisture content testing. Chemical treatment is done by the method of alkali. Single coir fibers for the treatment carried out using NaOH 5%. Alkali solution set with a variation of the submersion of 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours. Single fiber tensile strength testing is done according to standard ASTM C1557-2003. Tensile tests showed that an alkali treatment can increase the tensile strength of single fiber of 27.9% in immersion lye for 2 hours compared without soaking and increase the elongation of over 20% compared without soaking.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.