A systematic literature review on the investigation and application of vegetable fibers in textiles/apparel and future research agenda

Abstract

Vegetable fibers have attracted increasing attention from researchers and manufacturers in the textile and apparel industry for their renewable, biodegradable, and eco-friendly features. However, due to the scattered nature and rapid development, a review that adopts a holistic perspective and analyzes the knowledge evolution structure of the vegetable fiber domain could hardly be found. This paper systematically reviewed the research progress and frontiers of the vegetable fiber domain over the past 25 years, with bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping (by VOSviewer) of the 179 relevant articles retrieved from the Web of Science. A rapid increase in publications and citations was observed in the recent 5 years. India, China, and Turkey, with competitive textile industries and diverse agricultural sectors, have been active in vegetable fiber research. According to the clustering result of co-citation analysis, fiber-reinforced composites, vegetable fibers with sound/thermal insulation, and natural colorants were the main research topics with the most cited articles. “Knitting,” “insulation,” “Indian pineapple leaf,” and “color strength” were identified as the emerging research hotspots based on the keyword co-occurrence network. Future studies are expected to improve efficiency and automation, meanwhile decreasing the cost and environmental impact throughout the whole process chain of vegetable fibers. 植物纤维因其可再生、可生物降解和环保的特性，越来越受到纺织服装行业研究人员和制造商的关注. 然而，由于其分散性和快速发展，很难找到一种采用整体视角分析植物纤维领域知识演化结构的综述. 本文系统地回顾了过去25年来植物纤维领域的研究进展和前沿，对从Web of Science检索到的179篇相关文章进行了文献计量分析和知识图谱绘制（由VOSviewer完成）. 近五年来，出版物和引用量迅速增加. 印度、中国和土耳其拥有具有竞争力的纺织业和多样化的农业部门，一直积极从事植物纤维研究. 根据共引分析的聚类结果，纤维增强复合材料、具有隔音/隔热性能的植物纤维和天然色素是被引用最多的主要研究课题. 基于关键词共现网络，“针织”、“绝缘”、“印度菠萝叶”和“颜色强度”被确定为新兴的研究热点. 未来的研究有望提高效率和自动化程度，同时降低植物纤维整个工艺链的成本和环境影响.