In this work the moisture absorption of natural fibre material is reduced by innovative fibre pre-treatment methods while maintaining/improving the mechanical properties. Cavity polymerization of fibres is used to achieve these ambitious goals. Cavity polymerization is not an additive modification of the fibres, but an intrinsic filling with covalent bonding between the hydrophobizing reagent to the natural fibre material. With this innovative procedure some problems of surface treatment of natural materials, like insufficient treatment of cavities, shearing of agent during production and exposing new surfaces through subsequent processing can be attacked.

We are using a hydrophilic mixture from renewable and easy to obtain monomers to infiltrate the fibre cavities and a subsequent polymerization within the filled areas. This polymerization is forming a covalent bound cross-linked network inside. We are applying the described method on fibres at different process steps (raw, yarn and textile) and test the success of the treatment by analyzing moisture absorption and mechanical properties of the treated fibres and resulting composites.