Towards widespread properties of cellulosic fibers composites: A comprehensive review

To meet the growing demand for the use of environmentally and friendly materials in various applications, many efforts have been done in order to provide lighweighting, biodegradable, and renewable composites leading to a diminution of greenhouse gas emissions. However, they are confronting some challenges that may limit their utilization in industries such as poor interfacial adherence, high moisture absorption, low processing temperature, and impact strength. Several research works have been carried out regarding the mechanical, thermal, and hydric properties of natural fibers reinforced composites to deal with above underlined drawbacks. Actually, based on our analysis, there are two relevant concerns that prevent their integration in other industries such as marine and renewable energy sectors. In this context, the current critical review offers an up to date overview of the factors influencing the properties of the different components of natural fibers composites (fiber, matrix, fiber/matrix interface) as well as their physicochemical, mechanical, thermal and hydric behaviors. Recent works on the mechanical properties of nanobiocomposites based on cellulosic fibers, crystals, and nano-clay fillers are reviewed. The future directions are also discussed to overcome the challenges confronted by these materials, that is, fire resistance and moisture absorption, in order to widespread their utilization especially for wet and fire retardant purposes.