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Pinus roxburghii needles are plentiful in the Himalayas and may be processed into a natural fibre. In this research, polylactic acid composites were made, including both untreated and treated Pinus roxburghii fibres as reinforcing materials. The Pinus roxburghii fibres were produced by subjecting the Pinus roxburghii needle to an alkali treatment with a 5% sodium hydroxide solution in water, and the Pinus roxburghii fibres were obtained by a water retting extraction method. Pinus roxburghii fibre–polylactic acid composites were made using a compression moulding process. Composites were fabricated utilizing treated and untreated Pinus roxburghii fibre with fibre loadings of 20%, 30%, and 40% by weight. Subsequently, the investigators examined the alterations in the tensile, flexural, impact, and morphological properties with sodium hydroxide treatment. As expected, alkaline treatment considerably boosted the compatibility between Pinus roxburghii fibre and polylactic acid, leading to improvements in the morphological, hardness, and mechanical characteristics of Pinus roxburghii fibre composites. In addition, when 30 wt.% of treated fibres were used, the mechanical characteristics improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the potential of extracted pine needle fiber (PNF) to substitute synthetic fibers in biopolymer composites as a reinforcing material. The study is focused on the surface modification and characterizing of the extracted PNF. Water retting method was used to extract the PNF before being subjected to potassium permanganate treatment. The surface treatment with potassium permanganate resulted in higher density (1058 kg/m3) compared to the untreated fibers (1017 kg/m3). X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis shows the surface treatments positively impacted the natural fiber’s crystallinity index (CI). Additionally, the tensile strength of PNF were found to be enhanced on potassium permanganate treatment from 49.67 ± 9.6 MPa (untreated PNF) to 56.75 ± 16.54 MPa (treated PNF). Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the potassium permanganate treated PNF will be suitable to be used as reinforcement in fabricating the ecologically friendly composites.

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