Maize–Natural Fiber as Reinforcement with Polymers for Structural Applications - Natural Polymers, Biopolymers, Biomaterials, and Their Composites, Blends, and IPNs - page 37

absorption test and biodegradability test were carried out and found that these compos-
ite materials have good tensile strength and are promising materials for packaging and
other general structural applications. The chemical constituents of maize stalk fiber
are shown in Table 2. The ultimate strength of the maize stalk fiber is 152 MPa. The
stress-strain diagram for maize fiber is shown in Figure1.

table 2. Chemical constituents of maize stalk fiber (Reddy and Yang, 2005a).

Chemical composition (%)

Fibers

Cellulose Hemi cellulose Lignin Ash

Maize stalk 38-40 28 7-21 3.6-7.0

Figure 1. Stress-strain diagram for natural maize fiber (Kumar, 2008).

eXPerimeNtal WorK

Figure 2. VARTM processing of natural fiber composites.