Recent Development in Natural Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene Composites

This review article describes the recent developments of natural fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites. Natural fibers are low-cost, recyclable, and eco-friendly materials. Due to eco-friendly and bio-degradability characteristics of these natural fibers, they are considered as strong candidates to replace the conventional glass and carbon fibers. The chemical, mechanical, and physical properties of natural fibers have distinct properties; depending upon the cellulosic content of the fibers which varies from fiber to fiber. The mechanical properties of composites are influenced mainly by the adhesion between matrix and fibers. Chemical and physical modification methods were incorporated to improve the fiber-matrix adhesion resulting in the enhancement of mechanical properties of the composites. The most important natural fibers are jute, flax, and coir and their novel processing technics to develop natural fiber reinforced composites are also described.