
230 Green Composites from Natural Resources
composite materials for buildings using coconut coir with low thermal conductivity
is an interesting alternative that would solve environment and energy concerns.
Investigations carried out by Hill and Khalil (2000b) and Monteiro et al. (2005,
2006a,b) showed that coir bers are not an effective reinforcement for polymer
matrix composites. The water adsorbed into the lignocellulosic surface of the hydro-
philic coir ber apparently prevents an efcient adhesion to the hydrophobic polymer
matrix, which also happens in other natural ber composites (Vasquez et al. 1999).
As a consequence, the incorporat ...