Mango Seed Fibers Surface Chemical Modification Applied as Mechanical Reinforcement in Cementitious Composites

Cementitious composite is one of the most widely used construction materials in the world because its abundant resources, strong adaptability and mature production process [1]. Despite cementitious matrices present good compression strength, they are brittle and usually break when suffer some strain caused by tensile effort. Aiming to overpass this problem some fibers can be used as reinforcement, being the most commonly used fibers of steel, glass, poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA), polypropylene (PP) and carbon [2]. However, vegetable fibers, also named lignocellulosic fibers, has been used for this application due to their biodegradability, abundance, considering they are from renewable sources, low cost and low health risk. As disadvantage the vegetable fibers present low adhesion on the cementitious matrix, high water absorption by the fiber and low durability in alkaline media, related to the hemicelluloses and lignin degradation followed by fibers mineralization [3].