Carbon Fiber Based on Natural Fibers

Although the Engineered Product systems using Natural Fibers may not have reached high level documentations seen in the case of most other systems within Polymer Engineering and Materials Engineering, many of these fiber materials are generally documented. Further, most of these Natural Fibers have various traditional uses, based on local practices. For example, fibers of abaca, banana, jute, coir (coconut husk) are some of the traditionally used materials. It is also interesting to note that these are used in the form of twisted yarns and woven forms. Many attempts have been made to utilize these Natural Fibers to compete with Glass Fiber based Polymer Composites; such studies are still in infancy, and much more works are to be undertaken

It may be observed that most of these Natural Fibers have Cellulose contents ranging from about 30% to 80%; and the Lignin content varies from about 12% to 37%. The question is: Would it not be advantageous if we were able to convert these Natural Fibers (through some form of "hybridization") into Carbon Fibers? At a time when the world is gasping for high strength engineering materials side-by-side the problems thrown up due to Global Warming, such hybridization of natural fiber conversions into Carbon Fibers could be The Next Big Thing!