There has been much recent work devoted to the use of
agricultural fibers, particularly cellulosic fibers derived
from plants, in the reinforcement of commodity thermoplastics
such as polyethylene (PE) [1–3] and polypropylene
(PP) [4–7]. Agricultural fibers are interesting materials to
use for the reinforcement of polymers because they are
usually of lower density than inorganic fibers, environmentally
friendly, and relatively easy to obtain [8]. It is
anticipated that the fibers would not contribute to the wear
of polymer processing equipment and may not suffer from
size reduction during processing, both of which occur when
inorganic fibers or fillers are used. Although the absolute
property increase when using organic fibers is not
anticipated to be nearly as high as inorganic fibers, the
specific properties are anticipated to be high owing to the
much lower density of the organic fibers [4].
Commodity thermoplastics like polyethylene and polypropylene
are semi-crystalline materials. Both materials