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Abstract

Alkali treatment is one of the treatments that widely used in natural fiber surface treatment process. However, the different in treatment condition setting produce variability in fiber properties characteristic. This study aims to determine the effect of alkali treatment conditions on kenaf bast fiber tensile strength. Three conditions at two different levels were selected during alkali treatment process. They are kenaf fiber immersion duration (at 30 minute and 480 minute); alkali solution temperature at room temperature (26 ± 1oC) and 100oC; and alkali concentration (at 2% w/v and 10% w/v). Untreated kenaf fiber was used as control sample and the tensile test was conducted according to ASTM C1557-03. Cross sectional area was measured using Leica video analyzer. The results showed that alkali treatment conditions have a significant effect on kenaf bast fiber tensile strength. The immersion time appears to be most dominant factor that influences the kenaf fiber tensile strength mean value during alkali treatment process with -108.82 magnitudes and followed by alkali solution concentration with - 30.99 magnitudes. On the other hand, temperature factor showed a small effect on fiber tensile strength mean value changes. Finally, from this study analysis of variance results, it indicated that the interaction effect between factors during alkali treatment process was not statistically significant to kenaf fiber tensile strength changes.