Chemical Treatments on Plant-Based Natural Fibers for Natural Fiber - Reinforced Polymer Composites: A Review

Natural fiber reinforced composites are the material which swaps the synthetic fiber reinforced composites due to its low cost, light- weight, low density, low health hazards, recyclability and can be decomposed easily which may be not possible in case of man-made fibers. Researchers use different types of natural fibers to make polymer composites and study their mechanical properties. It is found that the interfacial bonding between the plant based fiber and the matrix plays a vigorous role to get good mechanical properties of composites but due to the presence of lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses in natural fibers the interfacial bonding between the fiber and matrix results into the poor interface. In order to remove this limitation, we need to do chemical treatment on natural fibers. In this paper, different types of chemical treatments on natural fibers such as silane, alkali, benzoylation, acetylation, isocyanates, and peroxide will be discoursed to advance the interface adhesion properties.