LIST OF CONTENT

Page no.

Candidate Declaration i

Certificate ii

Acknowledgement iii

Abstract iv

List of content v

List of figures vi

1: INTRODUCTION 1-2

2: Reinforcing Fibers 3-7

3: Modification of natural Fibers 8-9

4: Matrices for Natural Fiber Composition 10-14

4.1 Petrochemical Based 10

4.2 Bio Based 10

4.2.1 Advantages 11

4.2.2 Disadvantages 11

5: Processing Techniques 14-16

6: Performance of Natural Fibres 16-19

7: Developments and Applications 19-28

8: Focusing on Future Research 28

9: Conclusion 30

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 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Name of Figure Page no.
Figure 1 Comparison between natural fibre, glass fibre, and carbon fibre. 2

Figure 2 Overview of publications and patents on biodegradable lignocellulosic fibre-based 2

composites from 1995–2007.

Figure 3 Cost per weight comparison between glass and natural fibres. 4

Figure 4 Comparison of potential specific modulus values and ranges between natural 4
fibres and glass fibres

Figure 5 Properties of cellulose fibres and their dependence on chemical constituents 7

Figure 6 a) Tensile strength and b) tensile modulus of PLA, PHBV, and PP composites 11
with man-made cellulose, abaca, and jute fibres
Figure 7 Tensile properties of cabin reinforced PP, PLA, and PA 6.10 composites. 12

Figure 8 Emission factor for the PLA and PBS-natural fibre composites, LDPE and PP 12
(PLA-P: PLA with pineapple flour, PLA-C: PLA
with cassava flour, similar for PBS).
Figure 9 Comparison of load vs. displacement of sisal-glass fibre, jute-glass fibre, and 15
sisal-jute-glass fibre reinforced composites.

Figure 10 Flexural modulus of the PLA and PHB composites with lyocell and kenaf fibres 16
(Box-whisker diagram with confidence intervals, different letters mean
significant differences between the test samples, * means normal distributed).
Figure 11 Shore D hardness of pure PLA and PHB, and their composites (Box-whisker 17
diagram with confidence intervals).
Figure 12 Comparison of modulus/cost for various natural fibres and glass fibres 21

TEM micrographs of CNCs from kenaf under different magnifications: a) 13 000×

Figure 13 13
and b) 35 000×

Figure 14 Effects of fibre treatments on tensile modulus of kenaf fibre reinforced starch 22
composites.

Figure 15 Life Cycle of natural fibre composites. 23

Figure 16 Boundary conditions of the LCA of a frontal bonnet (manufactured with jute 24
fibre reinforced composites).

Figure 17 System boundary of extraction of cellulosic Nan whiskers from unripe 25

coconut fibres.

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