Author : Prakash Reddy.B, S.Satish and C.J.ThomasRenald

The bio-degradability issue of polymer composites is studied to focus more on the use of the natural fibers such as bagasse, coir, sisal, jute etc. This has resulted in creation of more awareness about the use of natural fibers based materials mainly composites. In past decade there have been many efforts to develop composites to replace non decaying materials based products. The abundant availability of natural fiber in India gives attention on the development of natural fiber composites primarily to explore value-added application avenues. Reinforcement with natural fiber in composites has recently gained attention due to low cost, easy availability, low density, acceptable specific properties, ease of separation, enhanced energy recovery, CO2 neutrality, bio-degradability and recyclable in nature. Isophthalic polyester resin are a broad class of resins specification is selected to impart desired properties and corrosion resistance. These resins can be used for moderate corrosion resistance applications to a temperature range around 180ₒF. Isophthalic resins exhibits good resistance to water, acid, weak bases and hydrocarbons such as gasoline and oil. Agricultural wastes can be used to prepare fiber reinforced polymer composites for commercial use. Although glass and other synthetic fiber-reinforced plastics possess high specific strength, their fields of application are very limited because of their inherent higher cost of production. In this connection, an investigation has been carried out to make use of coir; a natural fiber abundantly available in India. This investigation discusses the use of coir fiber and its current status of research. Many references to the latest work on properties, processing and application have cited in this paper.

Keywords: Natural fiber, Coir, Isophthalic resin, Polymer Composites.

Article published in International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Sciences 2014, Special Issue-2 (Feb 2014)