Why are composites important in nature

Figure 1 shows different kinds of mainly available natural fiber plants. Industrial uses of natural fibers increasingly gain attention from various manufacturing sectors. The use of natural fibers for polymer composites is growing rapidly to meet diverse end uses in transportation, low cost building, and other construction industries [15].

Qualities of natural fibers are strongly influenced by growing environment, age of plant, species, temperature, humidity, and quality of soil. Various fields where natural fibers can be employed are: structural composites, automobile, non-structural composites, geotextiles, packaging, molded products, sorbents, filters, and in combinations with other materials.

Structural beams and panels were designed, manufactured, and tested for bio-based composite materials, particularly on plant oil-based resins and natural fibers [5]. Thus, these composites should be used for parts that need high tensile strength and stiffness but are subjected to low impact stress.

Examples are furniture, boardings or holders for grinding discs. In contrast, cotton fibers cause high impact strength but lower tensile strength and stiffness.

These composites could be used for impact stressed components like interior parts in cars or safety helmets. A mixture of bast and cotton could combine the positive tensile characteristics of bast with the good impact properties of cotton, making the composites suitable for various car parts as well as for suitcases [16]. The automobile industry is successfully applying composites reinforced with a variety of natural fiber to replace components such as interior panels and seat cushions originally made of glass mat PMC or polymeric foams [17].

Apart from the plant-based fibers, animal-based fibers become other alternatives for producing biodegradable, biomedical and bio-resorbable composite materials for bioengineering and orthopaedic applications. Silk fiber has been used in biomedical applications particularly as sutures [18].

Figure 1. Natural fiber plants. Natural fibers reinforced composites are emerging very rapidly as the potential substitute to the metal or ceramic based materials in applications that also include automotive, aerospace, marine, sporting goods and electronic industries [19]. Natural fiber composites exhibit good specific properties, but there is high variability in their properties. Their weakness can and will be overcome with the development of more advanced processing of natural fiber and their composites.

The exploitation of natural fiber composites in various applications has opened up new avenues for both academicians as well as industries to manufacture a sustainable module for future application of natural fiber composites [20]. In the United States, composite building materials are being made from straw.

Straw bales are being used in the construction of buildings. Many automotive components are already produced with natural composites, mainly based on polyester or Polypropylene and fibers like flax, hemp, or sisal. The adoption of natural fiber composites in this industry is led by motives of price, weight reduction, and marketing rather than technical demands [5]. Germany is a leader in the use of natural fiber composites.

The German auto-manufacturers, Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Volkswagen have taken the initiative to introduce natural fiber composites for interior and exterior applications. It should be emphasized that luxury automotive manufacturers are on board which could be seen as evidence that natural fiber composites are being used for environmental needs and not to lower costs [21]. Mercedes-Benz used an epoxy matrix with the addition of jute in the door panels in its E-class vehicles back in Toyota developed an eco-plastic made from sugar cane and will use it to line the interiors of the cars [22].

Biodegradable bark cloth reinforced green epoxy composites are developed with view of application to automotive instrument panels [23]. In structural applications and infrastructure applications, natural fiber composites have been used to develop load-bearing elements such as beam, roof, multipurpose panel, water tanks and pedestrian bridge [24].

Jute-based green composites would be suitable for even primary structural applications, such as indoor elements in housing, temporary outdoor applications like low-cost housing for defence and rehabilitation and transportation.

The use of natural fiber as reinforcement in polymer matrix focused the attention towards environmental awareness among all over the world. A hybrid composite is a combination of two or more different types of fiber in which one type of fiber balance the deficiency of another fiber [26]. Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites have been proven alternative to Synthetic fiber reinforced polymer composites in many applications [27] [28].

Many Natural fiber composite products being developed and marketed, very few natural fiber composites have been developed, with most of their technologies still in the research and development stages. Natural fiber composites in automobile include for parcel shelves, door panels, instrument panels, armrests, headrests and seat shells [29]. Recently, banana fiber reinforced composites are coming into in interest due to the innovative application of banana fiber in under-floor protection for passenger cars [32].

Automobile parts such as rear view mirror, visor in two wheeler, billion seat cover, indicator cover, cover L-side, name plate were fabricated using sisal and roselle fibers hybrid composites [33]. The variety applications of natural fiber and its composites are discussed in this paper. This review concludes that the natural fiber composites form one of the emergent areas in material science that makes awareness for use in various applications.

Composites: Part B, 43, Composites Science and Technology, 72, Materials and Design, 40, Also the application of NFPCs in automobile and industry is reported. The effects of chemical treatment of the natural fiber properties were also addressed. The physical and mechanical properties of these NFPCs can be further enhanced through the chemical treatment, while moisture absorption of the NFPCs can be reduced through surface modification of fibers such as alkalization and addition of coupling agents.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Article of the Year Award: Outstanding research contributions of , as selected by our Chief Editors.

Read the winning articles. Journal overview. Special Issues. Layth Mohammed, 1 M. Academic Editor: Adriana Kovalcik. Received 18 Feb Revised 29 Jun Accepted 30 Aug Published 01 Oct Abstract Natural fibers are getting attention from researchers and academician to utilize in polymer composites due to their ecofriendly nature and sustainability.

Introduction The increase in environmental consciousness and community interest, the new environmental regulations and unsustainable consumption of petroleum, led to thinking of the use of environmentally friendly materials.

Fiber source World production ton Bamboo Table 1. Natural fibers in the world and their world production [ 4 ]. Table 2. Chemical composition of some common natural fibers [ 4 ]. Figure 1.

Some of mechanical properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composite [ 5 ]. Table 3. Physicomechanical properties of natural fibers [ 38 ]. Table 4.

Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Figure 5. Figure 6. Automobile components made of natural fiber composites [ 36 ]. Table 5. The application of natural fiber composites in automotive industry [ 59 — 62 ]. It is also made into fabrics for household furnishings upholstery, canvas and clothing, paper manufacture. Jute fiber Building panels, roofing sheets, door frames, door shutters, transport, packaging, geotextiles, and chip boards.

Table 6. Natural fiber composite applications in industry [ 3 , 63 — 65 ]. References A. May-Pat, A. Uddin, Ed. Ticoalu, T. Aravinthan, and F. View at: Google Scholar O. Faruk, A. Bledzki, H. Fink, and M. Shalwan and B. Xie, C. Hill, Z. Xiao, H. Militz, and C. Ray and M. Shinoj, R. Visvanathan, S. Panigrahi, and M. Kabir, H. Wang, K. Lau, and F. Ku, H. Wang, N. Pattarachaiyakoop, and M. Arrakhiz, M. El Achaby, M. Malha et al. Di Bella, V. Fiore, G.

Galtieri, C. Borsellino, and A. Norul Izani, M. Paridah, U. Anwar, M. Mohd Nor, and P. Tawakkal, M. Cran, and S. John and S. Jayamani, S. Hamdan, M.

Rahman, and M. Eng, N. Ibrahim, N. Zainuddin, H. Ariffin, and W. Graupner, A. Herrmann, and J. Bocz, B. Szolnoki, A. Marosi, T. Wladyka-Przybylak, and G. Al-Oqla and S. Mohanty, M. Khan, and G. Thygesen, S. Mehmood, B. Madsen, and M. Thakur and M. Van de Weyenberg, J.

Ivens, A. De Coster, B. Kino, E. Baetens, and I. Dai and M. Srinivasan, S. Boopathy, D. Sangeetha, and B. Stanojlovic-Davidovic, A. Bergeret, L. Ferry, and A. Kakroodi, S.

Cheng, M. Sain, and A. Sreekala, M. Kumaran, and S. Ren, T. Mizue, K. Goda, and J. Pan and Z. View at: Google Scholar L. Boopathi, P. Sampath, and K. Ramesh, T. Atreya, U. Aswin, H. Eashwar, and C. Venkateshwaran, A. Elaya Perumal, and D. Monteiro, K. Satyanarayana, A. Ferreira et al. This results in ineffectual stress transfer at the interface of the produced composites. To develop composites with good mechanical properties, chemical modification of fiber is carried out to reduce the hydrophilic behavior of fibers and their moisture absorption [ 30 , 31 ].

Many attempts have been made to modify the natural fiber surface in order to enhance their adhesion with the matrix through acetylation, acrylation, alkaline treatment, benzoylation, corona treatment, graft copolymerization, heat treatment, plasma treatment, silane treatment, stearic acid treatment, and other chemical modifications [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. The surface chemical modifications of natural fibers have achieved various levels of success in improving adhesion with polymer.

Coupling agents have also been utilized in the composite formulations. A coupling is defined as a compound which provides a chemical bond between two dissimilar materials. Coupling agents act as the bridge between polymer and natural fibers and improve their bonding. Mechanical properties of several bio-composites are presented in Table 4. Eco-friendly bio-composites from crop-derived plastics and plant-derived fibers would be the materials for near future not only as a solution to the growing environmental threat but also as a solution to alleviating the uncertainty of the petroleum supply.

The market size of natural fiber composites is projected to reach USD 6. This growth is attributed to the high demand for natural fiber composites in the construction and automotive industries and driven by regulatory requirements and superior product performance. Lightweight, high stiffness-to-weight ratio, consumer awareness regarding recyclable, and bio-degradable materials are the advantages of using natural fiber composites in the composites market [ 43 ].

The wide applications of natural fiber composites are growing rapidly in several engineering fields. Natural fiber—reinforced polymer composite use is of great importance in numerous applications including automotive, building and construction industries, sports, aerospace, and others, such as, decking, panels, window frame, and bicycle frame [ 79 , 80 ].

Several automotive components and construction materials are already produced with natural fibers composites with various polymers. The most common polymers used for the applications are polyester or polypropylene, and the natural fibers are flax, hemp, and sisal. Natural fiber composites have received considerable attention by many automotive and construction companies. However, the price, weight reduction, and marketing rather than technical demands will drive the application of natural fiber composites in this industry [ 81 ].

A summary of the utilization of natural fiber composites in automotive applications, building and construction industries, as well as others is shown in Table 5 [ 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 ]. Natural fiber bio-composites have many advantages; they are relatively cost effective, exhibit good thermal and dimensional stability, low coefficient of friction, and low density and are more environmentally friendly.

For these reasons, the popularity of these bio-composites is increasing, and a significant amount of scientific knowledge is already generated.

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