Effect of fillers of various sizes on mechanical characterization of natural fiber polymer hybrid composites: A review

Growing environment awareness around the globe has raised the importance of natural fiber reinforced composites (NFRC) in the field of research and innovation due to their advantage over conventional glass and carbon fibers. The various advantages of natural fibers over man-made glass and carbon fibers are low cost, comparable mechanical properties, renewability, recyclability and bio-degradability. The availability of these natural material and ease of manufacturing attracts the researchers to try the locally available inexpensive fibers and to study their feasibility as reinforcing in to polymers. The challenges for the researchers for the use of natural fiber composites such as high moisture absorption, low strength in comparison to glass and carbon fibers, low thermal stability and irregular surface quality are overcome by making the hybrid composites with fillers of various sizes. The varying ratios of fillers like TiO2, Al2O3, SiC, CaCO3, Mg(OH)(2) and ZnO etc. are inserted to overcome the limitations of NFRC. This review sets to provide an overview of influence of fillers and their size on mechanical characterization of composite materials. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.