Leaf fibres as reinforcements in green composites: a review on processing, properties and applications

Fibres are extracted from various parts of the plants like stem, leaf, bast, flower and fruits. These fibres are reinforced into composites and find their major applications in packaging, furniture, automotive, marine, infrastructure and aerospace industries. Amongst various parts of plant, majorly leaves were discarded as wastes in most of the cases. As a matter of fact, the fibres extracted from the leaves have equivalent strength when compared with the fibres extracted from other parts of the plant. Pineapple leaf, areca leaf stalk, abaca fibres, henequen, palm leaf stalk and many other leaf-based fibres were experimented by many researchers. It was determined that the leaf fibre-reinforced green composites possess better mechanical properties and modulus when compared with other class of polymer composites. This review mainly deals with the potentiality of various leaf-based fibres to be used as reinforcements, method of extraction, their properties and applications. This review covers finite element modelling, strength and commercial application aspects of leaf fibre-based composites.

Automated summary

Fibres extracted from various parts of plants are reinforced into composites for applications in multiple industries. Leaf fibre-reinforced green composites exhibit better mechanical properties and modulus compared to other polymer composites.