A Review on Biofiber-Reinforced Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and Polylactic Acid (PLA) Composites

Abstract

The most important problem now is environmental pollution, which includes contamination of the air, water, and soil. In general, soil pollution harms the fields and renders them infertile, which is a serious worry. Agrowaste is one of the sources of soil pollution. Reusing this agricultural waste, specifically Natural fibers (NFs), by blending them with polymer-based materials to reinforce the polymer composite may be able to reduce the pollution caused by agro-waste. There are benefits and drawbacks to this strategy, though. As a result, from the perspective of mechanical characteristics, polymer composite materials made with NFs are subpar compared to polymer composites reinforced by, for example, carbon or glass fibers. Due to their renewable, biodegradable, and environmentally benign qualities, NFs can be extremely important in the textile and composites industries.In terms of both industrial applications and fundamental research, the natural fiber-reinforced polymer composite is expanding quickly. NFs are becoming more important as a result of environmental concerns due to their eco-friendliness. Since NF is a plentiful resource, the creation of NF composites will enable the replacement of current materials in a variety of applications. They are cheap, biodegradable, fully or partially recyclable, renewable, and renewable. Due to their low cost and low density as well as their good mechanical qualities, these composites are appealing due to the ease with which raw materials are accessible and renewable. Usually, continuous (very long) or discontinuous (chopped) NFs are utilized as reinforcement in composites. Given that NFs have superior mechanical qualities to synthetic fibers, there is growing interest in employing them to create high-performance technical products.