This paper presents the characterization of false banana fiber for its use in fly ash-based geopolymer composites. Prior to producing the geopolymer composite, the properties of the individual material must be evaluated. However, to the best of the authors knowledge, the characterization of this particular fiber type has not been carried out before. The fiber is extracted from the false banana plant commonly known as Enset. The fiber produced as a byproduct is currently used for making ropes and mats. Therefore, the objective of this research is to investigate the physical, mechanical, and thermal degradation behavior of the fiber for potential application in geopolymer composite material production. The fiber diameter was studied through SEM image analysis. From the bundle of fibers, twenty fibers were chosen randomly and three measurements (top, middle, and tail) were taken from each single fiber filament to account for the variation of thickness along its length. Then, the average of sixty samples was taken as the diameter of the fiber. The average was found to be 172 µm. The tensile strength of the fiber was determined by using an Instron Universal testing machine (model: 5967). Single fiber tensile tests were conducted in accordance with ASTM C1557 standard. For the analysis, five individual false banana fibers were randomly taken and mounted into a paperboard frame with a gauge length of 25 mm using double sided sticking tape and carefully gripped into the Instron machine. A 100 N load cell with a constant crosshead speed of 1 mm/min was applied. The average tensile strength at break and the corresponding displacement were found to be 747 MPa and 2.26 mm, respectively. The thermal degradation behavior of the fiber was studied using thermogravimetric analysis. A weight of about 8 mg of fiber was heated from ambient to 600 oC in a nitrogen atmosphere.As it can be seen from Figure 4, the initial weight loss, associated with the evaporation of water, is not significant. Moreover, from Figure 4 and Figure 5 a maximum weight loss rate at around 363 oC was detected, which is due to the pyrolysis of cellulose. A similar degradation behavior has been reported for sisal fiber, wherein the major weight loss occurs at around 365 oC.
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) was done to investigate the chemical structure and functional groups present in the fiber. Sample FTIR spectra were recorded in the wavenumber range of 4000 to 400 cm-1 using 42 scans and a scanning resolution of 4 cm-1.