The thermal stability property of bio-composites: a review

Abstract

Composite material has played important role as an alternative material to metal in many industries. However as the growing of environmental concern throughout the world becomes so high, the interest on the green or bio-composite as to replace fossil based composite has also increased. Bio-composite, a type of composite materials that constitutes of natural fibres and bio-polymers, comes with the environmental advantages of being renewable, biodegradable and sustainable. However green composites also come with several disadvantages such as low in mechanical properties, low in thermal stability and high in water absorption. The level of these disadvantages vary from one bio-composite to another since there are lots of factors that determine these properties. Due to this, a large number of researches have been conducted to improve these properties with the aim of applying bio-composites as structural components. In this paper, a review is made on the thermal stability property of the bio-composites. The review includes the discussion on tests conducted to study the instability behavior of the bio-composites and factors that will improve the thermal stability of bio-composites. It was found that the addition of the high volume fraction of fibres to the bio-composites may not increase the thermal stability of the bio-composite. However, thermal stability can be improved by giving chemical treatments to the bio-composites that improves the compatibility of the fibres and the polymers of the bio-composites.