Olabisi Odesanya

The need to provide a better and stronger protection against various kinds of ballistic impacts and threats has necessitated the continuous exploration and utilization of high-performance fibres, especially those that are derived from renewable sources for ballistic applications. The development of ballistic protection materials with improved performance and low weight has received much concerns in the past few decades due to the rising cases of threats and insurgencies. Owing to the necessity of improving the ballistic performance of body armour and protective wears especially for military personnel, with a huge consideration for eco-friendly requirement, a review of relevant studies in this area is necessary. Present review article aims to present an overview of the progress and the outstanding advances that have been witnessed in the development of natural-based anti-ballistic composites in the past few years. The article covers the type and selection of the fibre/matrix, failure modes, Impact energy absorption and ballistic simulation of NFRCs. It also highlights the economic cost analysis of replacing synthetic fibres with natural ones in a ballistic composite, and the methods of enhancing the composites for high performance and greater ballistic efficiency. The utilization of natural fibres in PMCs have shown their great potentials as substitutes to the existing advanced fibrous materials that are mostly dominated by synthetic fibres.

The main barrier in the use of natural fiber (NF) as a reinforcing material in thermoplastic composites meant for outdoor applications is NF’s hydrophilicity. Thus, heat treatment of vacuum-dried mangrove was conducted at 120°C in order to reduce the hydrophilic nature of mangrove. The untreated and heat-treated mangrove particles were compounded with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) at 10, 20, and 30 wt% in a twin-screw extruder and injection molded into dog-bone-shaped test pieces for tensile tests and thermal analysis (thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)). Test pieces were immersed in distilled water for 1440 h at ambient temperature (approximately 27°C) and a relative humidity of 60–65%. The results revealed that the earliest and latest water saturation were observed at 480 and 792 h for 10 wt% treated and 30 wt% untreated composites, respectively. The dry composites maintained higher tensile strength and modulus but lower tensile strain ...