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The versatile characteristic of epoxy and its diversity made it suitable for different industrial applications such as laminated circuit board, electronic component encapsulations, surface coatings, potting, fiber reinforcement, and adhesives. However, the pervasive applications in many high-performance field limited the epoxy use because of their delamination, low impact resistance, inherent brittleness, and fracture toughness behavior. The limitations of epoxy can be overcome by incorporation and modification before their industrial applications. Currently, modified epoxy resins are extensively used in fabrication of natural fiberreinforced composites and in making its different industrial products because of their superior mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. Present review article designed to be a comprehensive source of recent literature on epoxy structure, synthesis, modified epoxy, bioepoxy resin, and its applications. This review article also aims to cover the recent advances in natural fiber-based epoxy composites and nanocomposites research study, including manufacturing techniques and their different industrial applications.

Pineapple leaf fibre, which is rich in cellulose, relative inexpensive and abundantly available has the potential for polymer-reinforced composite. The present study investigates the tensile and flexural behaviours of pineapple leaf fibre-polypropylene composites as a function of volume fraction. The tensile modulus and tensile strength of the composites were found to be increasing with fibre content in accordance with the rule of mixtures. The tensile modulus and tensile strength with a volume fraction 10.8% are 687.02 and 37.28 MPa, respectively. The flexural modulus gives higher value at 2.7% volume fraction. The flexural strength of the composites containing 5.4% volume fraction was found to be higher than that of pure polypropylene resin by 5.1%. Scanning electron microscopic studies were carried out to understand the fibre-matrix adhesion and fibre breakage.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of fiber treatment on both morphological and single fiber tensile strength of empty fruit bunch (EFB). EFB fiber was treated with boiling water, 2% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and combination both NaOH and boiling water. Fiber morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was further used to measure the amount and rate of change in the weight (weight loss) of treated fiber as a function of temperature. Based on the results of this work it seems that alkali treatment improved most of the fiber properties. NaOH treatment was found to alter the characteristic of the fiber surface topography as seen by the SEM. The thermal stability of NaOH treated and water boiling treated EFB fiber was found to be significantly higher than untreated fiber. The best results were obtained for alkali treated fiber where the tensile strength and Young's modulus increased compared to untreated fibers. The overall results showed that alkali treatment on EFB fiber enhanced the tensile strength and thermal stability of the fiber samples.

The demand for exploring advanced and eco-friendly sustainable packaging materials with superior physical, mechanical and barrier properties is increasing. The materials that are currently used in packaging for food, beverage, medical and pharmaceutical products, as well as in industrial applications, are non-degradable, and thus, these materials are raising environmental pollution concerns. Numerous studies have been conducted on the utilization of bio-based materials in the pursuit of developing sustainable packaging materials. Although significant improvements have been achieved, a balance among environmental concerns, economic considerations and product packaging performance is still lacking. This is likely due to bio-based materials being used in product packaging applications without a proper design. The present review article intends to summarize the information regarding the potential applications of cellulosic nanofiber for the packaging. The importance of the design process, its principles and the challenges of design process for sustainable packaging are also summarized in this review. Overall it can be concluded that scientists, designers and engineers all are necessarily required to contribute towards research in order to commercially exploit cellulose nanofiber for sustainable packaging.

Natural fiber is well-known reinforcement filler in polymer-matrix composites. Composite components like organic polymers and natural fibers are natural fire conductors as the natural fiber consists of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, and hence are as highly flammable as wood. Natural fiber reinforced composite materials are progressively being used in a variety of applications where their fire response is a hazardous consideration, for example, in the automotive (transportation) and building-construction industries. As a result, an awareness of their performance or response during a fire and the use of conventional fire retardants are of great importance, as they are subject to thermal decomposition when exposed to intensive high heat or fire sources. In this review paper, fire flammability is the main concern for cellulosic and non-cellulosic fiber-reinforced polymer composites, especially epoxy composites. This paper reviews the literature on the recent developments in flammability studies concerning polymers, epoxy polymers, cellulosic-fibers, and non-cellulosic fiber-reinforced epoxy bio-composites. The prime objective of this review is to expand the reach of "fire retardants for polymer materials and composites" to the science community, including physicists, chemists, and engineers in order to broaden the range of their applications.

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The effects of carbon fibre hybridisation on the thermal properties of woven kenaf-reinforced epoxy composites were studied. Woven kenaf hybrid composites of different weave designs of plain and satin and fabric counts of 5×5 and 6×6 were manually prepared by a vacuum infusion technique. A composite made from 100% carbon fibre was served for a comparison purpose. Thermal properties of pure carbon fibre and hybrid composites were determined by using a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). It was found that a hybrid composite with higher kenaf fibre content (fabric count 6×6) showed better thermal stability while the highest thermal stability was found in the pure carbon fibre composite. The TG and DTG results showed that the amount of residue decreased in the plain-designed hybrid composite compared to the satin-designed hybrid composite. The DSC data revealed that the presence of woven kenaf increased the decomposition temperature.