Green composites: A review of adequate materials for automotive applications

This study provides a bibliographic review in the broad field of green composites seeking-out for materials with a potential to be applied in the near future on automotive body panels. Hereupon, materials deriving from renewable resources will be preferred as opposed to the exhaustible fossil products. With the technical information of bio-polymers and natural reinforcements a database was created with the mechanical performance of several possible components for the prospect green composite. Following the review, an assessment is performed where aspects of suitability for the candidate elements in terms of mechanical properties are analyzed. In that section, renewable materials for matrix and reinforcement are screened accordingly in order to identify which hold both adequate strength and stiffness performance along with affordable cost so as to be a promising proposal for a green composite. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.