Bamboo: Potential material for biocomposites

Bamboo is a naturally composite material, which abundantly distributes in the tropical regions in the world. Since bamboo is composed of cellulose fibers embedded in a lignin matrix, it is considered as a composite material.Bamboo culms are one kind of the building materials that have been generally used in building applications, such as flooring, walls, windows, doors, ceiling, roofs, rafters, and trusses. Furthermore, they are applied in additional construction as structural materials such as bridges, water-transportation pipe, and skyscraper scaffoldings. In addition, they have been processed into many varieties of household product items, for example, food containers, chopsticks, handicrafts, toys, furniture, flooring, charcoal, musical instruments, and weapons. In rural regions where its growing, bamboo is called as the poor man's timber because it is used for many aspects in the human life.Liese and Kãhl said there are over 1000 described uses of bamboo. Bamboo provides food, renewable raw material, and regenerative energy. Culms have excellent technological properties and are used for construction, scaffolding, handicraft products, furniture, and as material for secondary products such as bamboo mats, boards, or flooring. Over 1 billion people live in bamboo houses, from simple dwellings to four-story city houses and engineered structures. Since the 20th century, bamboo has received rising attention for industrial applications, particularly as raw material for biocomposite products, such as for paper, plywood, fiberboard, particleboard, and oriented strand board due to its fast growing, rapid maturity, high productivity, and superior strength properties with light weight. For this reason, bamboo could be proposed as an alternative raw material to manufacture the bamboo biocomposite products. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.