Plant fiber reinforced polymer matrix composite: a discussion on composite fabrication and characterization technique

Environmental awareness and depletion of petroleum resource issues have triggered an enormous interest in utilizing natural fiber as environmentally friendly and sustainable materials as an alternative to existing materials. Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites have many advantages like avail...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hashim, Mohd Yussni, Ahmad Zaidi , Ahmad Mujahid, Ariffin , Saparudin
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2541/
http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2541/1/Plant_Fiber_Reinforced_Polymer_Matrix_Composite.pdf
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Summary:Environmental awareness and depletion of petroleum resource issues have triggered an enormous interest in utilizing natural fiber as environmentally friendly and sustainable materials as an alternative to existing materials. Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites have many advantages like availability, inexpensive, renewable, minimal health hazards, relative high specific strength and modulus, lightweight, and biodegradable. However, the physical properties of natural fiber had large variation according to plant originality, plant maturity, location in plant, retting and treatment technique and composite processing technique. Furthermore, their applications are still limited due to several factors like hydrophilic nature of plant fiber which lead to poor compatibility between plant fiber and polymer matrix, high moisture absorption, poor wettability, restricted processing temperature and poor dimensional stability. Therefore, this review gives a short review of recent literature focused on the plant fiber reinforced thermosetting matrix composite. These include plant fiber preparation, composite fabrication technique, fiber-matrix volume fraction and composite material characterization. The composite characterization will highlight the commonly used mechanical, thermal, water and moisture properties evaluation. Few areas of further study have been stressed to attempt the abovementioned challenges in plant fiber reinforced thermosetting matrix composite fabrication.