Study on Mechanically Activated Dioscorea Fiber and Analysis of Activation Energy

Abstract

Microtopography of fiber of Discorea nipponica Makino before and after mechanical activated by AGO-2 planetary mill was observed by SEM, and they changed the thick floccules to fine particles (D50 particle sizes were 10.18μm). Discorea fiber powder after mechanical activation had a narrow size distribution. According to XRD, the granularity and structures of discorea fiber with and without mechanical activation significantly differed, and the crystalline of discorea fiber was significantly converted into amorphous state after mechanical activation. On the basis of TG–DSC analysis, the activity of discorea fiber was enhanced, and certain internal energy were stored, and complete decomposition in advance. According to FT-IR, none of the functional groups of the mechanically activated discorea fiber disappeared, and no new functional groups appeared, which indicate that mechanical activation does not induce a chemical transformation of discorea fiber. According to the activation energy analysis, the thermal activation energy of dioscorea fiber after mechanical activation was18.49 kJ•mol, and the mechanical transfer activation energy was 56.06 kJ•mol, indicating that about 1/3 of the mechanical transfer activation energy was stored in the activated dioscorea fiber fine powder in the form of surface energy and internal energy.