Development and Determination of the Physical Properties of Long Nigerian Bamboo Fibre (LNBF)

Natural fibre has emerged as a renewable and cheaper substitute to synthetic materials such as glass, carbon and aramid, which are used as reinforcements. The chemical composition of natural fibres may differ with the growing condition and test methods even for the same kind of fibre, hence the need to develop fiber using bamboo from Nigeria to carry out this research. In this work, the objective was to develop, investigate and analyze the physical properties of long bamboo fiber obtained locally from Nigeria. Fresh bamboo was obtained and the fibre extracted using maceration method. Different physical properties of the long bamboo fibre were determined to ascertain their applicability. It was found that the pH values of the solution before and after extraction were 3.0 and 4.0 respectively. Thedensity of the dry bamboo (1.11g/cm 3 ) is slightly above that of water and that of the long bamboo fibre was found to be 0.5580 g/cm 3 .