Plant Fiber — Industrial Waste Reinforced Polymer Composites as a Potential Wood Substitute Material

This investigation deals with the property characterization and utilization of abundantly available and renewable resources of plant fibers such as jute and sisal. These plant fibers along with industrial wastes (fly ash and red mud) have been used for synthesizing value added composite materials. Relevant engineering properties such as physical and mechanical, resistance to abrasive wear, weathering and fire, etc., of the plant fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites so synthesized were characterized. The characteristics of conventional wood and other commercially available potential candidate building materials were also compared to assess the application potential of the newly developed materials vis-a-vis their conventional counterparts. The study reveals that the developed polymer—natural fiber—industrial (inorganic) waste composites attain far superior mechanical properties and resistance to abrasive wear, fire, water absorption, weathering, and chemical attack, as compared to their conventional counterparts such as wood, medium density fibre (MDF) boards, particle board, etc. The versatile material system so developed has potential for wood substitute applications like door shutters, flooring tiles, roofing sheets, partitions, etc., and is envisaged to significantly contribute towards forest conservation and environmental protection. The study strongly suggests that the newly developed plant fiber and/or industrial waste reinforced polymer composite materials are quite capable to serve as a potential cost and energy effective, technologically viable, and attractive substitute to the conventionally used wood and other identical materials. The study gains significance from the fact that earlier investigators have focussed their attention mainly towards exploring the use of chopped (sisal), and textile (jute) composites for different engineering applications including building while the present study examines the suitability of abundantly available natural fibers such as sisal and jute in the presence of otherwise harmful industrial wastes like red mud and fly ash for synthesizing polymer-based composites. This is followed by assessing the potential of the developed composite materials as a cost and energy effective wood substitute for building applications.