Abstract

Microstructural parameters in microwave (MW) irradiated hemp fiber using wide angle x-ray scattering study (WAXS)

Author(s): Sangappa, S.Asha, P.Parameswara, K.Ramakrishna, Manjunatha Pattabi, R.Somashekar

An experimental study was undertaken to investigate the effect of microwave (MW) heating on natural hemp fibers (NHF). The changes in microstructural parameters in these natural polymer fibers have been studied using wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) method. The crystal imperfection parameters such as crystallite size , lattice strain (g in %) and enthalpy (á*) have been determined by line profile analysis (LPA) using Fourier method ofWarren. Exponential, Lognormal and Reinhold functions for the column length distributions have been used for the determination of these parameters. The goodness of the fit and the consistency of these results suggest that the exponential distribution gives much better results, even though lognormal distribution has been widely used to estimate the similar stacking faults in metal oxide compounds.