New textile fibre: Curaua

Abstract

Curaua fibres are leaf fibres extracted from an Amazon-forest plant (Ananas comosus var. erectifolius) closely related to the pineapple. There is evidence of successful use of curaua fibre in different areas, such as: reinforcing composite structures and products in the automobile industry, due the high mechanical resistance associated with low density values. Furthermore, there is the fact that this fibre is easy to care and plant arouses great interest in new applications for the textile industry. Based on these characteristics the Physico-chemical and dyeing behaviour using reactive and direct dyes of curaua fibre were studied by means of FTIR, DSC, SEM and colour strength (K/S) analyses. The dyeing experiments were performed in the same conditions for cotton and curaua fibres, in order to verify the difference between both. The dyeing results obtained confirmed the real possibility for the use of this fibre in textile industry. The introduction of curaua fibre in the industry could help to respond to the demand that the market has for natural fibres.