| Summary: | Nanocellulose are natural materials with at least one dimension in the nanoscale. They combine important cellulose properties with the features of nanomaterials and open new prospects for materials technology applications. With the increasing environmental and ecological concerns due to the use of petroleum-based chemicals and products, the synthesis of fine chemicals and functional materials from natural resources is of potential values. Due to promising excellent strength, high young’s modulus, biocompatibility, abundance from the natural plants and tunable self-assembly properties which are essential for the applications of this material in automotive forte. Despite being the most abundant natural resources, the processing of cellulose into different types of micro and nanostructures as reinforcement in thermoplastic and thermosetting composites contribute to numerous advantages for the environment, such as reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere during their cycle of production, processing, and use. In particular, nanocellulose complements organic-based materials, where it imparts its mechanical properties to the composite whenever material strength, flexibility, and/or specific nanostructuration are required. In the automotive industry, their suppliers push cellulose-based material use for a variety of reasons depending on regulatory, economic, company policy-related, and product-specific purposes. However, incorporating cellulose as reinforcement in thermoplastic polymers also have challenges including (1) the issue of compatibility between hydrophilic cellulose and hydrophobic polymers, (2) moisture sensitivity because of its hydrophilic nature, (3) uniform dispersion and extreme agglomeration, and (4) low thermal stability, limiting its applications in thermoplastics with high melting points. These challenges may be the reason of the limited application of cellulose composites in automotive applications compared to glass fiber (GF)-based composites and other synthetic fibers. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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