polimerii

Emergence of polymers in the beginning of the 19th century ushered a new era of research with a new option of using the natural fibers in more diversified fields. At the same time interest in synthetic fibers, because of its superior dimensional and other properties gained popularity and slowly replaced the natural fibers in different applications. However, change in the raw material and production of synthetic composites required a large quantum of energy and quality of environment suffered because of the pollution generated during the production and recycling of these synthetic materials. This has once again drawn the attention towards natural fibers due to their distinct advantages. Thus, the renewed interest in the natural fibers has resulted in a large number of modifications to bring it at par and even superior to synthetic fibers. Because of such tremendous changes in the quality of natural fibers, they are fast emerging as a reinforcing material in composites. Considering the high performance standard of composite materials in terms of durability, maintenance and cost effectiveness, applications of natural fiber reinforced composites as construction material in creating built environment holds the enormous potential and are critical for achieving sustainability.

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Natural fibers found to have extensive applications in building and civil engineering fields. In case of synthetic fiber based composites, despite the usefulness in service, these are difficult to be recycled after designed service life. However, natural fiber based composites are environment friendly to a large extent. Though hydrophilic character of natural fibers would leads to composites with weak interface but pretreatments of natural fibers are aimed at improving the adhesion between libers and matrix. In pretreatments, either hydroxyl groups get activated or new moieties are added that can effectively interlock with the matrix (1-11).
NATURAL FIBERS: STRUCTURE, PROPERTIES, AND APPLICATIONS