• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.9_10
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• pp.1144-1152
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• 2003

Kenaf has been cultivated in Jeju Island. After being harvested at 105 DAP(day after planting) and separated from kenaf stalks , decorticated kenaf basts were treated with different concentration/temperature/time combinations in order to do chemical rotting. The following fiber properties were compared; rotting effects, colors, crystallinity, molecular structures, dyeabilities, and non-cellulose contents such as pectins, lignins, & hemicellulose. The best results of chemical rotting were obtained from the specimens treated with low concentration/ low temperature/short time. Their colors were bright yellow. The lumens of specimens diminished with the affect of NaOH. The structures of chemically rotted kenaf fibers were cellulose 1. The degree of crystallinity of chemically retted kenaf fibers were very high. Non-cellulose content, especially hemicellulose, was low in the specimens treated with the high NaOH concentration. Dyeabilities of kenaf fibers were higher among the specimens without the non-cellulose content than those with the non-cellulose content.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.711-720
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• 2009

Leaf fibers have many good properties; they are strong, long, cheap, abundant and bio-degradable. Since they, however, contain a great quantity of non-cellulose components, they have been used for the materials of mats, ropes, bags and nets rather than those of clothing. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of leaf fibers in order to promote the use of leaf fibers for the materials of clothing as well as develop the high value-added textile fibers. Leaf fiber plants including New Zealand Flax, Henequen and Banana plant, which have various nature and shape, were used. New Zealand Flax and Henequen leaves were cut from lower part of plants. Banana leaves and pseudo-stems were peeled and cut from the stem of Banana plants. First, the thin outer skins like film of leaves, veins and stems were removed before retting. The chemical retting had been processed for 1hour, at 100 in 0.4% $H_2SO_4$ aqueous solution(liquid ratio 50:1). Then, the retted leaf fibers had been soaked for 1hour, at room temperature in 0.5% NaClO solution(v/v) to remove the miscellaneous materials. We investigated the physical characteristics of three leaf fibers including the transversal and longitudinal morphology, the contents(%) of pectin, lignin and hemicellulose, the length and diameter of fibers, the tensile strength of the fiber bundles, and the fiber crystallinity and the moisture regain(%). The lengths of fiber from three leaf fibers were similar to their leaf lengths. The fiber bundles were composed of the cellulose paralleled to the fiber axis and the non-cellulose intersecting at right angle with the fiber axis. The diameters of New Zealand Flax, Henequen and Banana fibers were $25.13{\mu}m$, $18.16{\mu}m$ and $14.01{\mu}m$, respectively and their tensile strengths were 19.40 Mpa, 32.16 Mpa and 8.45 Mpa, respective. The non-cellulose contents of three leaf fibers were relatively as high as 40%. If the non-cellulose contents of leaf fibers might be controlled, leaf fibers could be used for the materials of textile fiber, non-wovens and Korean traditional paper, Hanjee.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.29 no.7 s.144
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• pp.938-947
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• 2005

Kenaf basts were double retted by using water and enzyme. The best conditions were enzyme concentration $0.125\%$ and 1 day treatment at $50^{\circ}C$, 4 days treatment at $20^{\circ}C$. It was showed that the double rotting could be more economical and eco-friendly than just water rotting or enzyme rotting. Kenaf fibers have been cottonized by removing lignin and hemicellulose partially. In order to cottonize kenaf fiber, lignin of kenaf fibers were removed by sodium chlorite and then hemicellulose of kenaf fibers were removed by sodium hydroxide. The cottonizing phenomenon of kenaf fibers were was confirmed in transversal and longitudinal photograph of SEM. The tensile strength and crystallinity of cottonized fiber were investigated. The tensile strength and crystallinity were lower as the lignin and hemicellulose of kenaf fibers were less.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.28 no.910
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• pp.1282-1291
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• 2004

Kenaf was cultivated and harvested in large quantity in Cheju Island and Chinju, Kyungsangnamdo. It was chemically rotted with 3% NaOH for 60 minutes at 100$^{\circ}C$, neutralized using 1% acetic acid, washed and dried, and obtained 40kg of dry kenaf fiber. Kenaf 15/rayon 85, flax 15/rayon 85, and rayon 100% yam was spun and the physical characteristics were measured. Plain weave and twill weave fabrics were made using each of the above yarns as the filling yam. Cotton 100% yam was used as the warp yam in all fabrics. Kenaf/rayon blend yarns were higher in tenacity and elongation, lower in yam uniformity, higher in the number of nep than the flax/rayon blended yams. Kenaf/rayon blend fabric had higher tenacity and elongation compared to the flax/rayon blend fabric Kenaf/rayon blend fabric was most stiff in both plain weave and twill weave fabrics whereas drape characteristics was dependent upon the fabric structure of the kenaf/rayon blend and flax/rayon blend. There were little differences between the kenaf/rayon blend fabric and the flax/rayon blend fabric in the Kawabata physical measurements and the PHVs. The only drawback of kenaf fiber was it's surface roughness and it is expected that it can be improved by enzyme retting and mechanical bundle separation.

• Fibers and Polymers
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.129-133
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• 2002

It is well known residual gum exists in degummed or rotted hemp fibers. Gum removal results in improvement in fiber fineness and the properties of the resultant hemp yams. However, it is not known what correlation if any exists between the residual gum content in retted hemp fibers and the fiber fineness, described in terms of fiber width in this paper. This study examined the mean width and coefficient of variation (CV) of fiber width of seventeen chemically rotted hemp samples with reference to residual gum content. The mean and CV of fiber width were obtained from an Optical fiber diameter analyser (OFDA 100). The linear regression analysis results show that the mean fiber width is directly proportional to the residual gum content. A slightly weaker linear correlation also exists between the coefficient of variation of fiber width and the residual gum content. The strong linear co-relation between the mean of fiber width and the residual gum content is a significant outcome, since testing for fiber width using the OFDA is a much simpler and quicker process than testing the residual gum content. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) reinforces the OFDA findings. SEM micrographs show a flat ribbon like fiber cross-section hence the term \"fiber width\" is used instead of fiber diameter. Spectral differences in the untreated dry decorticated skin samples and chemically treated and subsequently carded samples indicate delignification. The peaks at $1370cm^{-1}$, $1325cm^{-1}$, $1733cm^{-1}$, and $1600cm^{-1}$ attributed to lignin in the untreated samples are missing from the spectra of the treated samples. The spectra of the treated samples are more amine-dominated with some of the OH character lost.cter lost.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.244-248
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• 1987

Attempts were made to enumerate the number of Gram positive and negative bacteria in the development of natural fermentation rapidly and simultaneously. A general Gram stain was applied to this study. The number of cells by Gram stain was proportional to the cell turbidity by spectrophotometer within a range of 0.7 absorbance at 610nm. The cells washed out during procedures were not exceeded about 8 percentage. The standard error of separate counts in the mixture of Cscherichia coli and Micrococcus luteus was $5.1\pm2.3$%. The possible range of counting was $5.5\times 10^{7}-1.0\times 10^{9}$ cells/ml. Therefore, it is believed that a general Gram stain could be applied to the separate counting of mixture of Fram positive and negative bacterial populations too. In practice, growth kinetics of hemp retting and Kimchi fermentation were presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.30 no.7 s.155
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• pp.1025-1033
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• 2006

Kenaf bast can be obtained by decortication of Kenaf stem. Kenaf fibers are much more rough than cotton fiber because they include impurities as pectin, lignin and hemicellulose besides cellulose. The purpose of this research is to investigate the distribution of kenaf fiber length and diameter during the processes of removing impurities. To remove pectin, kenaf bast was retted chemically. A half of the retted kenaf fiber bundle were scoured and bleached. The other half one were treated with $NaClO_2$ solution to remove lignin, and were treated with sodium hydroxide solution to remove hemicellulose. Four kinds of specimens that were obtained for investigating physical characteristics. Length and diameter of 100 fibers on each specimen was measured. The tensile strength of 100 fiber bundles were measured. And also the color values of them were measured with spectrocolorimeter. The length of retted kenaf fiber was 16.97cm. Then it decreased to 11.43cm after bleaching. Kenaf fiber bundles could be finer by chemical processes that remove non-cellulosic materials. The thickness of retted fiber was $132{\mu}m$. And after undergoing the chemical processes to remove non-cellulosic materials, the thickness of kenaf fiber became finer as $73{\mu}m$. Tensile strength of the retted kenaf fiber bundles was 11.37Mpa. The retted kenaf fiber lost their strength as 22.6% by bleaching and as 18.3% by treatment for removing lignin. The retted kenaf fiber showed low whiteness as 56.48 of L*value. After bleaching, the kenaf fibers have creamy white color and their whiteness got 90.02 of L*value. After the treatment for removing hemicellulose, the kenaf fibers also have creamy white color and their whiteness got L* value of 79.02.