article · Hybrid Advances
Natural fibre biocomposites are increasingly viewed as sustainable substitutes for conventional engineering materials across construction, automotive, and aerospace sectors. These materials offer notable mechanical performance, low weight, energy efficiency, and cost advantages, alongside a reduced carbon footprint. While research and industry attention historically concentrated on plant-based lignocellulosic fibres, other sources like animal-derived keratinous and fibrinous fibres, as well as microorganism fibres such as mycelium, represent under-explored options. Despite their technical and environmental promise, natural fibres present significant challenges, including susceptibility to moisture damage and poor compatibility with host matrices. Overcoming these barriers requires targeted surface treatments to boost adhesion between the fibres and surrounding metal, ceramic, or polymer matrices. Resolving these interface issues is essential to realise high-performance, durable composites capable of replacing traditional resources in demanding technical roles.
Heavy industries must transition to sustainable, low-carbon materials to curb environmental harm. Natural fibres offer renewable, energy-efficient replacements for traditional industrial composites. Understanding how diverse fibre sources, including animal and fungal materials, behave within different matrix systems allows engineers to design robust components while addressing critical weaknesses such as moisture sensitivity and bonding failure.
The work addresses applications in the construction, automotive, and aerospace sectors, targeting materials engineers and manufacturers seeking low-carbon composite alternatives. Because the technology currently faces fundamental barriers regarding moisture sensitivity and fibre-matrix bonding, it sits at an early research and development stage. Practical commercial deployment requires proven surface alteration techniques to ensure reliable bonding and mechanical performance before industrial components can be manufactured.
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Advances in the material science world drive the birth of a new generation of sustainable materials. Natural fiber (NFs) biocomposites are emerging as valuable alternatives to conventional materials for engineering applications such as construction, automobiles, and aerospace due to their exceptional mechanical properties, lightweight, low carbon footprint, energy efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. These outstanding properties have made them more desirable for engineering applications. However, the focus has been on lignocellulosic fibers, neglecting other sources, such as keratinous, fibrinous, and microorganism fibers. Only a few reviews have considered the structure-property relationship of all classes of natural fibers, such as lignocellulosic (plant), keratinous and fibrinous (animal), and microorganism (mycelium) fibers. Although NFs have outstanding potential from an economic, technical, environmental, and green credentials perspective, they have limitations, such as fiber-matrix incompatibility and moisture damage. These limitations make using NFs as reinforcement for different material systems challenging. Surface alterations are usually necessary to improve the adherence between fiber and matrix. With the upgrade, NFs have the potential as sustainable replacement for conventional materials for engineering applications. Future research should aim at reconciling the mechanical properties of NFs to improve composite quality and fiber-matrix adherence and performance.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.hybadv.2025.100378
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