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The aim of this paper is to examine the use of artichoke fibres as potential reinforcement in polymer composites.\ud The fibres are extracted from the stem of artichoke plant, which grows in Southern Sicily. In order\ud to use these lignocellulosic fibres as potential reinforcement in polymer composites, it is fundamental to\ud investigate their microstructure, chemical composition and mechanical properties.\ud Therefore, the morphology of artichoke fibres was investigated through electron microscopy, the thermal\ud behaviour through thermogravimetric analysis and the real density through a helium pycnometer.\ud The chemical composition of the natural fibres in terms of cellulose, lignin, and ash contents was determinated\ud by using standard test methods.\ud Finally, the mechanical characterization was carried out through single fibre tensile tests, analysing the\ud results through statistical analysis

This paper deals with the evaluation of the effect of an eco-friendly and cost-effective surface treatment based on the use of sodium bicarbonate on the mechanical properties of flax-reinforced epoxy composites. To this aim, unidirectional fabrics were soaked for five days in 5 and 10% in weight of sodium bicarbonate solution at 25℃. Quasi-static and dynamic mechanical tests were performed and the fracture surfaces of the composites were analyzed through scanning electron microscopy. Results evidenced that this treatment improves the fiber–matrix adhesion thus increasing the performances of the composites. Treating the fabrics with 10% w/w of bicarbonate solution leads to improvements of ∼20 and ∼45% in tensile strength and modulus of the composites, respectively, compared to untreated ones. Furthermore, by increasing the concentration, negligible changes in the glass transition temperature and reductions in the tanδ peak heights were found. The observation of the fracture surfaces confirmed the beneficial effect of the proposed treatment.