Preface

Natural fibers embrace a long history of serving mankind in a wide range of everyday life applications, and they compete and coexist in the twenty-first century with manmade fibers, especially as far as quality, sustainability, and economy of production are concerned. The present world has witnessed the importance of research, development, and innovation in the practical utilization of natural fibers. These fibers have been used for hundreds of years to meet human needs such as clothing and shelter. These practices were considerably reduced with the emergence of synthetic fibers toward the end of the 1900s. However, with the passage of time the alarming increase in environmental concerns and exhaustion of energy resources have revitalized the significance of natural fibers. Instead of the widespread usage of conventional synthetic fibers, researchers and the industry are now even more stimulated to utilize and generate the development and modification of sustainable fibers. The major advantages of using natural fibers in different applications is that they comprise several mechanical and physical properties such as good specific modulus values, low density, considerable toughness, low cost, recyclability, non-toxicity, and easy accessibility, and these attractive aspects give an opportunity to use natural fiber-reinforced composite products in various industries such as automotive, building, furniture, and so on. The book presents the latest research data on new and emerging areas in the generation, processing, development, and modification of natural fibers and their applications.

By definition, natural fibers are fibrous polymeric composite materials obtained from natural renewable sources, namely plants and animals. The ever-growing environmental, ecological, and economical concerns lead to increased acceptance of natural fibers as substitutes in almost every area of conventional synthetic material application. Applying natural fibers in various applications yields the benefits of biodegradability, non-toxicity, combustibility, easy availability, non-abrasiveness, light self-weight, low cost, good specific strength, and great corrosion, as well as fatigue resistance. Despite these advantages, there are huge drawbacks associated with the use of natural fibers, including great water sensitivity, poor melting temperature, and inferior adhesion to other materials. To combat these downsides, the surface modification of natural fibers has received vast research interest in recent developments.

The first chapter deals with different phases of development, characterization, and properties of silk fiber and grafted silk fiber-reinforced polymer composite films. The innumerable properties of silk fiber have proven its worth to be used by researchers both in the plastic and biomedical sectors. The extensive use of silk fibroin in the biomedical field, due to its robust properties, has made it a promising material suitable in tissue-engineering applications. Keeping this in view, the current chapter also focuses on retailoring the properties of silk fibers by grafting a natural polysaccharide. The results are useful in determining the practicality of silk fabric in the biomedical field.

The second chapter gives information on the structure and properties of common plants, which are used as natural fiber sources. Due to research and developmental work in the modification and treatment methods of natural fibers, utilization of natural fibers has observed a significant growth in various applications. The chapter addresses the potential applications of natural fibers in various commercial sectors for the development of environmentally friendly products with the aim of replacing synthetic fibers or inorganic fillers with cost-effective and efficient products.

The next chapter looks at the topic of surface modification of bast-based natural fibers through environmentally friendly methods. Bast fibers play a significant role in producing natural products that are extracted from the stems of various plants. Besides being environmentally friendly in nature, bast fibers have several benefits, e.g., they can improve the livelihood of poor farmers involved in the cultivation of plants and the extraction and processing of the fibers. Therefore, surface modification of established natural fibers (such as hemp, flax, jute, kenaf, urena, nettle, and ramie) and explored natural fibers are momentous areas for research. The most important aspect of the current research is the exploration of environmentally friendly methods, such as plasma treatment, and utilization of enzymes, bacteria, and fungi to acquire these modifications.

The last chapter deals with a review of the valorization of cellulose fibers to obtain sustainable products for bioeconomy applications. Over the past decade, natural fibers have received considerable research interest as a reinforcement for the generation of polymer composites due to their high-performance profile and environmental sustainability. Cellulose fibers can be used as functionalized products for several applications cost effectively.

Being convinced of the value of the topics covered in the book, owing to the significance of the sustainable approach in the generation, development and modification of natural fibers for the industrial world, as well as for developing countries, I was myself delighted to collaborate on this book focusing on different aspects of natural fibers applications. I hope that readers become aware of the complexity, the interaction, interconnections and the challenges of this field, and that they will help to communicate the importance of topics covered.

**Dr. Mudassar Abbas** School of Textile and Design of University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

**V**

The non-woven fabrics industry can play a leading role in the convergence and commercialized production of industrial textiles as a front- and rear-linked industry for industrial textile applications. In general, non-woven fabrics are used as representative intermediate materials or final products of composite materials. For this purpose, new fibers for the production of non-woven fabrics have been developed and new manufacturing technologies for making differentiated intermediate products or final products have been introduced to consider the application of non-woven fabrics expanding from intermediate products to hybrid products.

To review the position of non-woven fabrics as one of the important convergence materials, its future vision is introduced, including from raw materials to final composite products. The applicability of non-woven fabrics is also introduced based on the new advanced embedded intermediate materials using general-purpose synthetic fibers as well as special fibers such as nanofibers and carbon fibers.

The core technology of non-woven fabrics manufacturing is to improve and control the uniformity of the dispersed phase of the constituent fibers. In addition, since the weight and thickness of the web are directly related to the weight and thickness of non-woven fabrics, it is possible to predict the mechanical performance of nonwoven fabrics prepared by controlling uniformity and weight through optimization

This book describes the current state of technology and product trends of nonwoven fabrics that have an important effect on the manufacturing technology and product development of industrial textiles. Hybrid technology from new and advanced fibers to final products is included for its specialized end-use application. Especially, nanofiber and related non-woven fabrics are newly introduced from the

Finally, we expect this text to be a meaningful guide and reference for non-woven fabrics technology and sincerely thank all the authors for their precious manuscripts. Also, we deeply appreciate the effort of Author Service Manager Ms. Lada Bozic at

> **Han-Yong Jeon** Professor,

GeoSynthetics Research Laboratory,

Technical Organic Materials Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Inha University,

Inha-ro, Michuhol-gu, Incheon, South Korea

of the manufacturing process.

IntechOpen.

point of view of nanofiber assembly technology.

The non-woven fabrics industry can play a leading role in the convergence and commercialized production of industrial textiles as a front- and rear-linked industry for industrial textile applications. In general, non-woven fabrics are used as representative intermediate materials or final products of composite materials. For this purpose, new fibers for the production of non-woven fabrics have been developed and new manufacturing technologies for making differentiated intermediate products or final products have been introduced to consider the application of non-woven fabrics expanding from intermediate products to hybrid products.

To review the position of non-woven fabrics as one of the important convergence materials, its future vision is introduced, including from raw materials to final composite products. The applicability of non-woven fabrics is also introduced based on the new advanced embedded intermediate materials using general-purpose synthetic fibers as well as special fibers such as nanofibers and carbon fibers.

The core technology of non-woven fabrics manufacturing is to improve and control the uniformity of the dispersed phase of the constituent fibers. In addition, since the weight and thickness of the web are directly related to the weight and thickness of non-woven fabrics, it is possible to predict the mechanical performance of nonwoven fabrics prepared by controlling uniformity and weight through optimization of the manufacturing process.

This book describes the current state of technology and product trends of nonwoven fabrics that have an important effect on the manufacturing technology and product development of industrial textiles. Hybrid technology from new and advanced fibers to final products is included for its specialized end-use application. Especially, nanofiber and related non-woven fabrics are newly introduced from the point of view of nanofiber assembly technology.

Finally, we expect this text to be a meaningful guide and reference for non-woven fabrics technology and sincerely thank all the authors for their precious manuscripts. Also, we deeply appreciate the effort of Author Service Manager Ms. Lada Bozic at IntechOpen.

> **Han-Yong Jeon** Professor, GeoSynthetics Research Laboratory, Technical Organic Materials Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Inha University, Inha-ro, Michuhol-gu, Incheon, South Korea

**IV**

work in the modification and treatment methods of natural fibers, utilization of natural fibers has observed a significant growth in various applications. The chapter addresses the potential applications of natural fibers in various commercial sectors for the development of environmentally friendly products with the aim of replacing synthetic fibers or inorganic fillers with cost-effective and efficient products.

The next chapter looks at the topic of surface modification of bast-based natural fibers through environmentally friendly methods. Bast fibers play a significant role in producing natural products that are extracted from the stems of various plants. Besides being environmentally friendly in nature, bast fibers have several benefits, e.g., they can improve the livelihood of poor farmers involved in the cultivation of plants and the extraction and processing of the fibers. Therefore, surface modification of established natural fibers (such as hemp, flax, jute, kenaf, urena, nettle, and ramie) and explored natural fibers are momentous areas for research. The most important aspect of the current research is the exploration of environmentally friendly methods, such as plasma treatment, and utilization of enzymes, bacteria,

The last chapter deals with a review of the valorization of cellulose fibers to obtain sustainable products for bioeconomy applications. Over the past decade, natural fibers have received considerable research interest as a reinforcement for the generation of polymer composites due to their high-performance profile and environmental sustainability. Cellulose fibers can be used as functionalized products for

Being convinced of the value of the topics covered in the book, owing to the significance of the sustainable approach in the generation, development and modification of natural fibers for the industrial world, as well as for developing countries, I was myself delighted to collaborate on this book focusing on different aspects of natural fibers applications. I hope that readers become aware of the complexity, the interaction, interconnections and the challenges of this field, and that they will help to

School of Textile and Design of University of Management and Technology,

**Dr. Mudassar Abbas**

Lahore, Pakistan

and fungi to acquire these modifications.

several applications cost effectively.

communicate the importance of topics covered.

**1**

Section 1

Generation, Development

and Modification in

Natural Fibres

## Section 1
