Abstract
The global drive towards a circular economy that emphasizes sustainability in production processes has increased the use of agro-based raw materials like natural fibres in applications that have long been dependent on inorganic raw materials. Natural fibres provide an eco-friendly, more sustainable, and low cost alternative to synthetic fibres that have been used for a long time in the development of composite materials. However, natural fibres are associated with high water absorption capacity due to their hydrophilic nature leading to poor compatibility with hydrophobic polymeric matrices, thus lower mechanical properties for various applications. Hybridization of natural fibres with synthetic fibres enhances the mechanical performance of natural fibres for structural and nonstructural applications such as automobile, aerospace, marine, sporting, and defense. There have been increased research interests towards natural/synthetic fibre hybrid composites in the past two decades (2001–2021) to overcome the identified limitations of natural fibres. Therefore, understanding the parameters affecting the properties and potential of using natural and synthetic fibre reinforcements to develop hybrid composites is of great interest. The review showed that using appropriate fibre orientation, fibre weight fraction and stacking sequence yields good mechanical, physical, and thermal properties that are competitive with what only synthetic fibre reinforced composites can achieve. In addition, these properties can be improved through pretreatment of natural fibres using different chemicals. This paper provides in review form the parameters affecting the mechanical, physical, and thermal properties of natural/synthetic fibre hybrid reinforced polymer composites from the year 2001 to 2021.
Highlights
Composites are defined as materials comprising of reinforcing/filler phase and matrix/continuous phase separated by the interface phase. e overall performance of composites is mainly influenced by the composition of these phases [1]
Treated banana/glass fibre hybrid reinforced polymer composites have reported enhanced ability to withstand higher stresses compared to pure glass fibre reinforced polymer composites [220]. us, the hybrid composite can be used as a replacement for glass and carbon-based field hockey equipment [221]
Outlook e challenge of poor interfacial adhesion between hydrophilic natural fibres and hydrophobic polymeric matrices needs to be addressed if natural fibre reinforced polymer composites are to be commercially viable
Summary
Composites are defined as materials comprising of reinforcing/filler phase and matrix/continuous phase separated by the interface phase. e overall performance of composites is mainly influenced by the composition of these phases [1]. Literature review shows that the hybridization technique can be used to reduce water absorption and improve the mechanical properties of natural fibre reinforced composites [20, 21]. E fibres are extracted from the respective plant using various methods such as dew retting, water retting, mechanical extraction, chemical retting, and enzymatic retting [32] Natural fibres such as sisal, coconut, bamboo, jute, kenaf, hemp, banana, coir, PALF, bagasse, ramie, basalt, cattail, and oil palm are gaining attention amongst material scientists globally. Further studies by Nallusamy and Majumdar [38] reported 53.8 and 39.0% increase in tensile and impact strengths, respectively, for jute/glass fibre hybrid composites compared with pure jute fibre reinforced epoxy counterparts. Jute/carbon fibre reinforced polyester hybrid composites exhibited reduced moisture absorption rate and enhanced tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, and impact strength of 136.3 MPa, 3.4 GPa, 175.8 MPa, 9.4 GPa, and 47.4 kJ/m2, respectively [41]. 1.61 g/cm and 1.48 g/cm as a result of the addition of flax and jute fibres, respectively, in glass/epoxy system [44]
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