Usage of Natural Fibre Composites for Sustainable Material Development.

What is it about?

Natural-fibre-reinforced composites (NFRCs) are revolutionizing the way materials are used for various purposes, and they have enriched applications from aerospace to concrete. In tandem with these works, sustainable materials that are eco-friendly and possess strength and endurance are rapidly replacing conventional materials. Recent decades have shown that many exuberant, curious-minded researchers are working on this particular domain, creating numerous materials for a variety of applications. What exactly is being performed in the laboratory is not being carried out in the field and duly disseminated. The major constraint is knowledge sharing and bottlenecks involved in assessing that research. Scientometrics is a field providing access to the consolidated research landscape report on a particular topic informing research on what work is being performed, how it is performed, who performs it, and what is the future scope. In this work, we analyze the research works, trends, and challenges related to NFRCs for engineering applications. It is found that research works, and the utilization related to NFRCs, have soared in the last two decades, which proves to be a promising area to work upon. We use the Scopus database for the analysis, and scientometric analysis is carried over with biblioshiny. We find that there is a decreasing trend in publications (−12.74%/year); 272 sources are involved with 1690 documents published containing 5554 authors with 54 single-authored documents. There are 3919 keywords involved with 16.51 average citations received for the documents published. This work can be used to understand the research trend and also to take up newer research.

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Why is it important?

he ability of people to live in peace and harmony on Earth for an extended period of time is referred to as sustainability. There are many different definitions of sustainability, and they have changed over time and with the literature and context. Three dimensions (or pillars) are frequently used to describe sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. Three pillars—economic, environmental, and social, also known colloquially as profits, planet, and people, respectively—are frequently used to describe sustainability. In that breakdown, the idea of “economic sustainability” focuses on protecting natural resources, including both renewable and exhaustible inputs, that offer physical inputs for economic development. NFRC filaments have attracted a lot of attention on the market, particularly to the development of concrete, plastics, composites, etc. However, concrete is the most widely utilized building material globally, and its consumption has improved in a variety of sectors since approximately the Roman period. This trend is primarily attributable to the material’s superior strength, durability, and convenience in comparison to other building materials [1,2,3,4]. Because of its poor tensile strength, low resistance to cracking, and poor propensity for mechanical damage, its implementation is severely constrained. Generally, fibre-reinforced concrete is evaluated as a means of compensating for concrete’s fragility [5]. Since biblical times [6], fragile composites have been reinforced with fibre. To increase the tensile strength of concrete, synthetic fibres, glass fibres, steel fibres, polyvinyl alcohol fibres [7,8], and natural fibres have been utilised [9]. Steel fibre is the most commonly employed of these [6,10]. However, rust is an issue with steel fibres, which restricts their consumption [11]. Many studies show that synthetic fibres are the best way to address this problem, despite the fact that their production is both expensive and energy-intensive. In such situations, natural fibres are typically considered a viable solution for the production of fibre-reinforced concrete. Independent natural fibres are disseminated indiscriminately throughout the matrix, and concrete’s microscopic dimensions are discontinuous.

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