Seawater aging and its degradation effects on the mechanical properties of biocomposites

The extended use of natural fiber composites for environmental reasons implies broadening their field of applications. In recent years, this also involved the need for penetration in some large production sectors, such as marine constructions, in which the use of hydrophilic materials, such as lignocellulosic fibers, would in principle appear to be excluded. On the other hand, beyond their environmental friendliness, several reasons suggest the use of natural fiber composites especially in local boatbuilding and on the larger ground of materials used in seawater and salt fog/mist context. Of course, this would require the assessment of the effect of exposure to marine environment on the mechanical properties of the materials and the possibility of reducing their degradation: a limited but rapidly growing number of studies exist in this context, which are reported and commented in this chapter.