Research on Improving Pretreatment Process of Banana Fiber Fabric with Rare Earth

Scouring and bleaching processes of banana fiber fabric based on rare earth complex Lanthanum sesquioxide (La₂O₃) pretreatment were studied. The effects of rare earth content, hydrogen peroxide concentration, sodium hydroxide concentration, temperature, time, and stabilizer concentration on the weight loss ratio, whiteness, capillary effect, and breaking strength of the banana fiber fabric were analyzed. The optimized process was determined by an orthogonal test, namely, the rare earth Lanthanum sesquioxide (La₂O₃) 0.25% o.w.f., sodium hydroxide 4.5 g/L, hydrogen peroxide concentration 7.5 g/L, the stabilizer 3 g/L, processed 60 min at 75 °C. Through infrared spectroscopy (IR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetry (TG), and other analysis, it was proven that the rare earth pretreatment process did not change the molecular structure of the cellulose and had little effect on the fabric thermal stability. The fabric obtained by the rare earth pretreatment process has high whiteness, high breaking strength, less damage to the fiber, good fiber wettability, a high capillary effect, and good handle.