Study of physicochemical, flammability, and acoustic properties of Hookeri raphia natural from Cameroon

The development of new materials is ultimately associated with requirements such as strength, lightness, low production cost, and raw materials from renewable sources, seeking to meet the needs, research, and development of new technologies, which value the qualification of materials from vegetable sources as natural fibers. In this context, this study aimed to characterize the main physicochemical properties of the natural raffia fiber and its flammability and thermo-acoustic characteristics. These characterizations were performed using several techniques, such as chemical composition analysis, density, moisture adsorption, SEM-EDS, FTIR, and TGA/DTG. The results showed that the morphology of the raffia fiber presents a similar shape to the beehive. The Elemental analysis of the natural fiber of raffia shows that carbon and oxygen contents are predominant, representing a proportion of more than 90%. Furthermore, the results suggest that the fiber is composed of lignin, hemicellulose, cellulose, tannin, and extractives, with cellulose in a proportion of 80%. TGA presents a profile similar to large parts of untreated vegetable fibers. The acoustic test showed excellent sound absorption coefficient (α) values at high frequencies, while the flammability test showed that natural raffia fiber is a good flame retardant.