Chemical Functionalization of Cellulosic Fibers for Green Polymer Composites Applications

Abstract

During the last few decades, synthetic polymers have emerged as new potential viable alternative to traditional metallic and ceramic materials due to their inherent properties such as flexibility, light weight, corrosion resistance, and easy processing. However, these synthetic polymers also pose some serious threats to our environments due to the toxic and hazardous chemicals associated during their synthesis and afterward their end use applications. Although these synthetic polymers have benefited the human being to a great extent, recently efforts are being made to reduce their use. The prime reason for this is the increasing environmental awareness and health concerns. All these concerns have led to intensive research on natural polymer-based materials derived from different biorenewable resources. Among bio-based polymers, cellulose fibers offer a very high potential as biodegradable biorenewable material. However, the presence of hydrophilic groups on natural cellulosic fibers limits their applications in everyday use. In order to overcome the disadvantages associated with these fibers, graft copolymerization is the most trusted tool to alter their properties for targeted applications. So in the present book chapter we report some of our studies on the chemical functionalization of natural cellulosic fibers through free radical-induced graft copolymerization technique.