Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites: history, types, advantages, and applications

Nowadays, the use of natural fiber reinforced polymer-based composites is gradually increasing day by day for their many advantages for civil engineering construction applications. Due to their many advantages for polymer-based composite materials are widely used in civil construction, automobiles, aerospace, and many others. Natural fibers such as jute, kenaf, pineapple, sugarcane, hemp, oil palm, flax, and leaf, etc. are cheap, environmentally friendly, renewable, completely and partially biodegradable which can be utilized to obtain new high-performance polymer materials. These composites are having satisfactory mechanical properties (i.e. tensile properties, flexural stress-strain behavior, fracture toughness, and fracture strength) which make them more attractive than other composites. Due to easy availability and renewability, natural fibers can be used as an alternative of synthetic fibers as a reinforcing agent. The aim of this paper is to review different natural fibers reinforced based polymer composites with mechanical characterization, applications, also shows the opportunities, challenges and future demand of natural composite material towards civil applications.