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This study focuses on the potential use of natural fibers in composite materials, their availability, processing features, mechanical and physical properties, and some of their applications in India.

Influence of cenosphere surface modification and volume fraction on the solid particle erosion of cenosphere/epoxy syntactic foams is investigated. Fly ash cenospheres are used as filler in both as received and silane surface modified configurations. Erosion behavior is studied at room temperature for different impact angles (30, 45, 60, and 90 ) and velocities (30, 45, and 60 m/s). Neat epoxy shows the highest erosion rate compared with that of the syntactic foams. Results show a strong dependence of impact angle and velocity on erosion rate of syntactic foams. With increasing cenosphere content erosion rate decreases for all impact angles. Erosion rate decreases with increasing impact angle and with decreasing velocity. Good interfacial bonding of treated cenospheres enhances the erosion resistance. All the samples exhibit ductile erosive behavior, with maximum erosion at 30 . The velocity exponent and erosion efficiency parameters confirm the ductile behavior of syntactic foams. POLYM. COMPOS., 40:2109-2118, 2019

With the continuous quest of developing hydrogel for cartilage regeneration with superior mechanobiological properties are still becoming a challenge. Chitosan (CS) hydrogels are the promising implant materials due to an analogous character of the soft tissue; however, their low mechanical strength and durability together with its lack of integrity with surrounding tissues hinder the load-bearing application. This can be solved by developing a composite chitosan hydrogel reinforced with Hydroxyapatite Nanorods (HANr). The objective of this work is to develop and characterize (physically, chemically, mechanically and biologically) the composite hydrogels loaded with different concentration of hydroxyapatite nanorod. The concentration of hydroxyapatite in the composite hydrogel was optimized and it was found that, reinforcement modifies the hydrogel network by promoting the secondary crosslinking. The compression strength could reach 1.62 ± 0.02 MPa with a significant deformation of 32% and exhibits time-dependent, rapid self-recoverable and fatigue resistant behavior based on the cyclic loading-unloading compression test. The storage modulus value can reach nearly 10 kPa which is needed for the proposed application. Besides, composite hydrogels show an excellent antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus bacteria’s and Candida albicans fungi and their cytocompatibility towards L929 mouse fibroblasts provide a potential pathway to developing a composite hydrogel for cartilage regeneration.

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