A Comprehensive Review on Natural Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites and Its Applications

Abstract

Natural plant fibers such as sisal, ramie, flax, kenaf, jute, banana, coir, etc. are emerging alternatives to manmade fibers like glass, aramid and carbon fiber for many reason like their physical properties, viz., low density, renewability, recyclability as well as biodegradability. Over the past several years, composites made from natural fibers have become an attractive domain of research interest for most of the academicians and researchers. Extensive research and innovation have been conducted in the domain of polymer composites made with plant fibers as reinforcement due to their numerous advantages over the artificial fiber composites like eco-friendliness, natural properties, sustainability etc. Apart from these advantages concerned with environmental safety and protection, the composites made from natural fibers possesses many other advantages like high strength to weight ratio, less damage to processing equipment, low overall cost, less energy consumption during production and their easy hybridization with synthetic as well as other natural fibers. Therefore, natural fibers have become a significant and important part of the composite industry. Natural plant fibers can be reinforced with thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers but their suitability with polymer matrix is a significant aspect in governing the mechanical characteristics of polymer composites. Composites reinforced with natural plant fibers have some disadvantages like moisture absorption, inferior mechanical strength and weak fire resistance which can be overcome by their surface modification and through addition of various coupling agents. These composites have increasingly become a popular choice for several engineering industries including automobile, aerospace and sporting industries.In this chapter, various natural plant fibers are introduced and discussed and their mechanical properties are explored. Composites made from polymer matrix like thermoplastics and thermoset are then discussed; subsequently, the advantages and lighter load engineering applications of polymer composites embedded within natural fibers that are applied to numerous engineering sectors are presented.