Recent development in thermoplastic/wood composites and nanocomposites: A review

Thermoplastic composites filled with wood-base fillers have gained increasing attention, because compared to virgin polymers they have many advantages of light weight, high strength and stiffness, low cost, biodegradability and renewability. These advantages let them find a large dispersal in many areas of technical applications. However, poor interfacial interaction between hydrophilic wood-base fillers and hydrophobic polymer matrices should be improved to get reasonable physical properties for their wide applications. The interfacial interaction could be improved by addition of coupling agents and chemical modifications of wood-base fillers. To improve physical properties of the thermoplastic/wood composites, further nanofillers can be incorporated. This review summarizes recent developments in thermoplastic/wood composites and deals with wood-base fillers for thermoplastics, various interface modification methods and various thermoplastic/wood composites as well as nanocomposites. This review can provide reasonable future perspectives in this research area and stimulate development of new innovative thermoplastic/wood composites as well as nanocomposites.