Environmental benign natural fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites: A review

Abstract

The automotive and aerospace industries are in continuous struggle towards the development of lightweight components to improve fuel efficiency. Thermoplastic matrix composites offer distinct advantages in terms of weight reduction, recyclability, specific strength, corrosion resistance, cost-efficiency, and design versatility. Natural fibres owing to their biodegradability, abundance in nature, and low cost not only expand the scope of these materials but also curtail the dependency on petroleum-based products. This review presents a comprehensive state of the art in natural fibres properties; mainly plant fibres, and their use as composite reinforcement followed by the textile technologies used to fabricate the engineered architectures. The review also covers the properties of commonly available thermoplastic matrices and the composite fabrication techniques to enable the selection of the precise material and process for any specific product development. Finally, the mechanical properties of natural fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites are reviewed and the key challenges that need to be dealt with are highlighted.

Keywords

• Natural fibres
• Biodegradable
• Fabrics/textiles
• Thermoplastic composites
• Mechanical properties
• Fibre reinforced composites