Fiber-reinforced polymer composite: Higher performance with renewable and eco-friendly plant-based fibers

Abstract

Considering sustainable environmental problems due to waste and the enormous potential of natural plant resources in producing natural fibers has encouraged researchers to make environmentally friendly composite materials reinforced with fibers. Several articles on using natural fibers as composite reinforcement have been collected and studied to produce this article. This article aims to comprehensively describe the physical properties, chemical composition, factors that affect fiber quality, and their relationship with mechanical properties. In the first section, we introduce the general classification of plant fibers and summarize the annual production and category of fiber origin used for fiber-reinforced composites. It then presents the parts of plants and plant species for fiber, including fruit, leaf, and seed fibers, and discuss their characteristics. Further describes the chemical compounds and physical and mechanical properties based on fiber sources. Based on our discussion, this review shows that plant fibers are very suitable as an alternative to polymer-based reinforcement materials due to low cost, renewable, and environmentally friendly composites. However, compatibility with synthetic polymers, dimensional stability and processability must be actively considered to replace synthetic fibers in various applications.