This paper investigates the liquid absorbency potential of the vegetal cell-fibers (CF) of Luffa cylindrica (LC) in relation to their microscopic morphology. Absorption after drainage and centrifugation, involving deionized water and saline solutions, is measured on both the raw fibers of the vegetal net and the cell-fibers previously extracted from ligneous fibrous strands (FS) with NaOH-anthraquinone alkali treatment. The microspongy structure of the raw Fs-luffa, observed in the vegetal material by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), is formed by multicellular fibers (from 250 to 500) bonded together with a large lumen (5 to 30 μm) and containing small punctuations along the fibers as interconnections. Liquid absorption results show that this original structure of these promising fibers should contribute to good absorption capacity: 18.4g/g and 22.6g/g are respectively obtained with for broken raw FS and CF-luffa fluff treated by 5 wt % NaOH. Their absorption capacity for liquid improves with an additional formaldehyde treatment.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.