Extraction and characterization of novel natural lignocellulosic fibers from Malva sylvestris L.

The main goal of this study is to characterize natural lignocellulosic fibers extracted from Malva Sylvestris. The experimental approach used is consisted to analyze the morphological, physical, chemical, thermal and mechanical characteristics of Malva sylvistris fibers. The stem anatomy showed that the bark of Malva is rich in fiber cells. Based on ATR-FTIR and X-ray analysis, the obtained results illustrated that the fiber contained mainly cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The crystallinity index of fiber is about 55.12 %, which indicated a high cellulose content. The Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) analysis test point out that Malva Sylvestris fibers are thermally stable until 225°C and an apparent activation energy about of 111 kJ.mol−1 was recorded. Tensile strength of Malva fibers is about of 236.64 ± 93.33 MPa whilst its young’s modulus is about of 26.07 ± 5.14 GPa. In view of the dispersion in the obtained experimental results, the latter were analyzed using the Weibull statistical laws with two parameters.