Development of tea waste/kapok fiber composite paper

Abstract

An awareness to sustain world’s green environment have triggered many efforts to use agricultural wastes as sources of fibres in pulp and paper making industries. In this research, tea waste/kapok fibre composite papers at various amounts of kapok contents were prepared. Tea waste, a by-product from tea industry, was treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution to remove non-cellulosic substances such as lignin, wax and hemicellulose. It was found that the tea waste papers treated with 15 wt% - 25 wt% NaOH solutions exhibited good tear indexes. Addition of kapok fibre into the tea waste had reduced the tear indexes of the composite papers. Higher kapok contents caused the entanglement of their long fibres, resulting in agglomeration of the fibres throughout the tea waste matrix. This was proven by the images of scanning electron microscopy. However, the water repellent properties of the composite papers were improved at an average of 52.3 % with respect to that of pure tea waste paper. The hydrophobic nature of the kapok fibre was responsible for the results. Overall, tea waste/kapok fibre composite has offered an improved paper property, where each fibre compensated the weakness of its counterpart. This indicates with agrowastes can be manipulated in such way to meet the requirements for pulp and paper making industries.