Over the last decade, the progressive application of natural fibres in polymer composites has had a major effect in alleviating environmental impacts. Recently, there is a growing interest in the development of green materials in a woven form by utilising natural fibres from lignocellulosic materials for many applications such as structural, non-structural composites, household utilities, automobile parts, aerospace components, flooring, and ballistic materials. Woven materials are one of the most promising materials for substituting or hybridising with synthetic polymeric materials in the production of natural fibre polymer composites (NFPCs). These woven materials are flexible, able to be tailored to the specific needs and have better mechanical properties due to their weaving structures. Seeing that the potential advantages of woven materials in the fabrication of NFPC, this paper presents a detailed review of studies related to woven materials. A variety of factors that influence the properties of the resultant woven NFRC such as yarn characteristics, fabric properties as well as manufacturing parameters were discussed. Past and current research efforts on the development of woven NFPCs from various polymer matrices including polypropylene, polylactic acid, epoxy and polyester and the properties of the resultant composites were also compiled. Last but not least, the applications, challenges, and prospects in the field also were highlighted.

Green polyurethane from plant oil-based such as Jatropha oil has recently received attention due to its environmental friendliness and sustainability. With incorporation of nanocellulose even though at low loadings in polymer matrices has shown a significant improvement. However, limited research has been done on different cellulose nanowhisker (CNW) polymorphs and their impact on composites. A number of studies have shown that the handling of cellulose polymorph also improves the properties of composite products as the cellulose II is more chemically reactive and thermodynamically stable than cellulose I. The aim this study is to investigate the effect of CNW with cellulose II polymorph in Jatropha oil-based polyurethane (JOPU). Different weight percent of CNW-II (0.1–1.5 wt%) were incorporated into JOPU films using vacuum rotavap and film casting. The total weight of 6 g was used as a fixed ratio (1:3) matrix of 4.4’-diphenyl-methane diisocyanate (MDI) and Jatropha-oil polyol (JO). The acid hydrolysis process was subjected to mercerised microcrystalline cellulose (MMCC) for the production of CNW-II. X-ray diffraction analyses were carried out to confirm cellulose II lattice of CNW-II. The CNW-II morphology was analysed using the transmission electron microscope. It was found that CNW-II had a granule-like shape with an average size of 74.04 nm in length and 21.36 nm in width. The translucency and colour of the film have also been tested by optical light microscopes. The clarity of the film and colour found affected by the highest CNW-II film loading. Based on the FTIR analysis, the spectra of all films show a typical polyurethane pattern that JOPU spectra found dominant due to very low volume NCW-II content in film. The same trend is observed for thermal degradation tested using a thermogravimetric analyser. Tensile strength and water uptake have been shown to increase in proportion to the CNW-II content.

Rhipicephalus sanguineus, commonly known as brown dog tick is a widespread species with considerable public health and economic importance. Tremendous efforts were performed to control the tick populations with the concern of resistance build-up and environmental issues. Alternative towards microbial control thus emerged as one option to reduce tick populations. In this study, the ovicidal efficacy of a native isolate entomopathogenic hyphomycetes fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae strain HSAH5 was evaluated against eggs of R. sanguineus. Spray applications with three different conidial concentrations of 10 5 , 10 6 and 10 7 conidia mL-1 ; 40 ppm of Flumethrin and a negative control. The M. anisopliae strain was found highly virulent to R. sanguineus eggs by reducing the hatching percentages to ≈30% compared with 8.9% in Flumethrin eggs. The result showed a significantly higher mortality in M. anisopliae group than those of the control groups (F = 42.08, df = 32, P < 0.001) at 30 days post-infection. However, there are no significant differences within the M. anisopliae group, in which the mortality between different conidial concentrations is almost the same. The estimated LC 50 of M. anisopliae against eggs of R. sanguineus is 1.36 × 10 3 conidia ml-1. Thus, these results suggest M. anisopliae strain HSAH5 could be a potential biocontrol agent of R. sanguineus in the integrated approach to managing ticks in the residential landscape by targeting on the eggs.