Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting offers a sparkling and sustainable strategy for hydrogen generation, and significant research for enhancing the conversion efficiency of electrocatalysts is underway, since a huge number of publications have been reported in this field. Hence, it is urgent to write a comprehensive and updated review in order to highlight the latest progress in the design, fabrication, and modification of electrocatalysts for high-efficiency PEC water splitting. In this review, we describe the basic mechanism of PEC water splitting utilizing electrocatalysts in detail. Further, we highlighted the recent advancements in the design, fabrication, and modification of high-efficiency electrocatalysts for energy conversion. In addition, the catalysts' surface passivation, heterojunction constructions, defect engineering, and photovoltage and photocurrent enhancements are also highlighted.

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Polymer composites are an important class of materials widely being used for many applications. But the main concern of non-degradability and adverse environmental impact of the polymer matrices and the synthetic reinforcements have given forth the need of environmental-friendly polymer matrices and reinforcements used in them. An attempt of such kind is to use the natural plant fibres as the reinforcements that have no harmful impact on the environment and also, they are cost effective. With growing interest in natural fibres in recent years, a lot of work is being done in various directions, which need to be gathered up for a specific interest. So, the present article is an attempt to review and discuss the research works that have evaluated the natural plant fibres as reinforcements in polymer composites. Natural fibre composites show variation of properties such as fibre’s source, type and structure. Interfacial adhesion between the fibre and the matrix is the most important factor when tensile properties of natural fibre composites are under consideration. The interfacial strength can be improved by some chemical modification of fibre surface, which changes the adhesion between fibre and matrix. These features of natural fibres as compared to synthetic fibres are motivating manufacturers and the end users to switch to natural fibre-based products.

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The effect of sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ) treatment of short bamboo fibres on mechanical properties and water absorption character of polyester composite is investigated. Treatment time and Na 2 CO 3 concentration were optimised to 6 h and 5 wt-% respectively. Microscopy of the treated fibres showed a significant change in surface texture whereas; FTIR suggested the removal of amorphous compounds from the fibres that resulted in enhanced interfacial bonding between fibres and the polyester matrix. Removal of amorphous compounds was also confirmed by TGA where material loss for untreated fibres was 15% higher than the treated fibres. Composites were prepared using 10, 20 and 30 wt-% of treated and untreated fibres. Good interfacial bonding, achieved by the fibre treatment, enhanced the strength (∼24 MPa),( decreased the impact energy (from ∼36×10 −3 KJ/m 2 to ∼33×10 −3 KJ/ m 2 ) and improved the water absorption resistance (∼2%) in case of 20 wt-% fibres composite.

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