A review on alternative raw materials for sustainable production: novel plant fibers

With ever increasing environmental awareness, renewable raw materials for textile and composite industry have become an important alternative to reduce the use of petroleum-based non-biodegradable fibers in various applications such as marine, automotive, sports and aerospace. Therefore, it is highly critical to understand the chemistry, structure, and properties of novel plant fibers. Natural fibers have been used for various purposes since ancient times. Numerous research and review papers were published on harvesting, production, properties and potential applications of conventional natural fibers. Sustainability, renewability, and recyclability issues increased the use of novel natural fibers globally. New applications such as natural fiber reinforced biodegradable composites also increased the importance of investigations on new natural fibers. This review paper considers extraction methods, fiber structure, chemical, physical and mechanical properties of novel cellulosic fibers. Fiber chemical constituents, functional groups, and surface hydrophilicity were discussed in terms of chemical properties. Physical properties of the cellulosic fibers such as density, crystallinity, maximum thermal degradation, mechanical performance and surface morphology were also discussed. Additionally, mechanical performance of new plant fibers was performed by comparing between some properties of common and recently characterized cellulosic fibers. The brief information about life-cycle assessment, sustainability, recycling, and biocomposite application of the novel plant fibers is also presented. According to the best our knowledge on literature review, this review may be unique to provide detailed information about recently characterized cellulosic fibers. This survey will be helpful to researchers who have interest in novel ligno-cellulosic fibers and fiber reinforced composites.