Materials and Methods

8.2.1 Pure Splitting Method

Initially, ID leaves are washed with huge quantity of water and are dried for a period of 150 days at ambient conditions (Fig. 8.2). The dried leaves are again cleaned using soft cloth to remove fine particulates. A splitter with a needle of 0.5 mm

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Fig. 8.2 ID leaves (150 days dried under ambient conditions)

diameter is used for extracting filaments from the leaves. The extracted fiber is placed in an oven at 70 °C to take away moisture before fabricating the composites, as shown in Fig. 8.3.