Morphological, Thermal, and Mechanical Characterization of Sansevieria trifasciata Fibers
Sansevieria trifasciata is a common perennial plant which freely grows and widely found in homes,
parks, and woodlands. In this research, we studied the morphology using Scanning Electron Microscope
and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR); thermal properties using Thermogravimetric (TGA) and
Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC) analyses; mechanical behavior through tensile tests of
Sansevieria trifasciata fiber (STF) obtained from Butaleja in Eastern Uganda. Findings show that the
fiber has an irregular cross-sectional shape with lumens in the center, the fiber diameter was between
80 and 120 μm. TGA tests showed that the fiber is stable below 200◦C with maximum cellulose decomposition temperature of 315◦C. DSC showed that the fiber’s crystallization temperature was 310.5◦C and
lignin decomposition temperature of 372.7◦C. The surface functional groups were majorly of cellulose,
hemicelluloses, and lignin in direct correlation with research elsewhere on natural fibers.