There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Nature And Properties Of Soils

Elements Of X Ray Diffraction

In recent years, natural fibers reinforced composites have received much attention because of their lightweight, nonabrasive, combustible, nontoxic, low cost and biodegradable properties. Among the various natural fibers; flax, bamboo, sisal, hemp, ramie, jute, and wood fibers are of particular interest. A lot of research work has been performed all over the world on the use of natural fibers as a reinforcing material for the preparation of various types of composites. However, lack of good interfacial adhesion, low melting point, and poor resistance towards moisture make the use of natural fiber reinforced composites less attractive. Pretreatments of the natural fiber can clean the fiber surface, chemically modify the surface, stop the moisture absorption process, and increase the surface roughness. Among the various pretreatment techniques, graft copolymerization and plasma treatment are the best methods for surface modification of natural fibers. Graft copolymers of natural fibers with vinyl monomers provide better adhesion between matrix and fiber. In the present article, the use of pretreated natural fibers in polymer matrix-based composites has been reviewed. Effect of surface modification of natural fibers on the properties of fibers and fiber reinforced polymer composites has also been discussed. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2009. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers

Pretreatments of Natural Fibers and their Application as Reinforcing Material in Polymer Composites—A Review

In materials science, “green” synthesis has gained extensive attention as a reliable, sustainable, and eco-friendly protocol for synthesizing a wide range of materials/nanomaterials including
 metal/metal oxides nanomaterials, hybrid materials, and bioinspired materials. As such, green synthesis is regarded as an important tool to reduce the destructive effects associated with the traditional methods of synthesis for nanoparticles commonly utilized in laboratory and industry. In this review, we summarized the fundamental processes and mechanisms of “green” synthesis approaches, especially for metal and metal oxide [e.g., gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper oxide (CuO), and zinc oxide (ZnO)] nanoparticles using natural extracts. Importantly, we explored the role of biological components, essential phytochemicals (e.g., flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, amides, and aldehydes) as reducing agents and solvent systems. The stability/toxicity of nanoparticles and the associated surface engineering techniques for achieving biocompatibility are also discussed. Finally, we covered applications of such synthesized products to environmental remediation in terms of antimicrobial activity, catalytic activity, removal of pollutants dyes, and heavy metal ion sensing.

/pdf/green-synthesis-of-metals-and-their-oxide-nanoparticles-4onh2g0i4w.pdf

‘Green’ synthesis of metals and their oxide nanoparticles: applications for environmental remediation

Cellulose macro- and nanofibers have gained increasing attention due to the high strength and stiffness, biodegradability and renewability, and their production and application in development of composites. Application of cellulose nanofibers for the development of composites is a relatively new research area. Cellulose macro- and nanofibers can be used as reinforcement in composite materials because of enhanced mechanical, thermal, and biodegradation properties of composites. Cellulose fibers are hydrophilic in nature, so it becomes necessary to increase their surface roughness for the development of composites with enhanced properties. In the present paper, we have reviewed the surface modification of cellulose fibers by various methods. Processing methods, properties, and various applications of nanocellulose and cellulosic composites are also discussed in this paper.

/pdf/cellulose-based-bio-and-nanocomposites-a-review-5484pyqycf.pdf

Cellulose-Based Bio- and Nanocomposites: A Review

Cellulose Fibers: Bio- and Nano-Polymer Composites

Synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles and study of their antibacterial and antifungal properties

Part I Cellulose Fibers and Nanofibers 1. Natural Fibers: Structure, Properties and Applications S. Thomas, S.A. Paul, L.A. Pothan and Deepa B 2. Chemical Functionalization of Cellulose Derived from Non-conventional Sources V.K. Varshney and Sanjay Naithani 3. Production of Flax Fibers for Biocomposites Jonn Foulk, Danny Akin, Roy Dodd and Chad Ulven 4. Cellulosic Bast Fibers, Their Structure and Properties Suitable for Composite Applications Malgorzata Zimniewska, Maria Wladyka - Przybylak and Jerzy Mankowski 5. Potential Use of Micro- and Nanofibrillated Cellulose Composites Exemplified by Paper Ramjee Subramanian, Eero Hiltunen and Patrick A.C. Gane Part II Cellulosic Fiber Reinforced Polymer Compo-sites and Nanocomposites 6. Greener Surface Treatments of Natural Fiber Rein-forcements for use in the Production of Composite Mate-rials Koon-Yang Lee, Anne Delille and Alexander Bismarck 7. Nanocellulose Based Composites Kelley Spence, Youssef Habibi and Alain Dufresne 8. Dimensional Analysis and Surface Morphology as Selective Criteria of Lignocellulosic Fibers as Reinforcement in Polymeric Matrices Kestur G Satyanarayana, Sergio N Monteiro, Felipe Perisse D Lopes, Frederico M Margem, Helvio P G Santafe Jr. and Lucas L da Costa 9. Interfacial Shear Strength in Lignocellulosic Fibers In-corporated Polymeric Composites Sergio Neves Monteiro, Kestur G. Satyanarayana, Frederico Muylaert Margem, Ailton da Silva Ferreira, Denise Cristina Oliveira Nascimeto, Helvio Pessanha Guimaraes Santafe Jr and Felipe Perisse Duarte Lopes 10. The Structure, Morphology and Mechanical Properties of Thermoplastic Composites with Fiber and Energetic Plants Slawomir Borysiak, Dominik Paukszta, Paulina Batkowska and Jerzy Mankowski 11. Isora Fiber- A Natural Reinforcement for the Develop-ment of High Performance Engineering Materials Lovely Mathew, M.K. Joshy and Rani Joseph 12. Pineapple Leaf Fibers (PALF) and PALF-Reinforced Po-lymer Composites Mohd Sapuan Salit, Mohamed Abdul Rahman, Januar Parlaungan Siregar and Mohamad Ridzwan Ishak 13. Utilization of Rice Husks and the Products of its Degra-dation as Fillers of Polymer Composites S. D. Genieva, S. Ch. Turmanova and L. T. Vlaev 14. Polyolefin Based Natural Fiber Composites Santosh D Wanjale and Jyoti P Jog 15. All Cellulosic-based Composites J. P. Borges, M. H. Godinho, J. L. Figueirinhas, M. N. de Pinho and M.N. Belgacem Part III Biodegradable Plastics & Composites from Re-newable Resources 16. Environment Benevolent Biodegradable Polymers: Syn-thesis, Biodegradability and Applications B.S. Kaith, Hemant Mittal, Rajeev Jindal, Mithu Maiti and Susheel Kalia 17. Biocomposites based on Biodegradable Thermoplastic Polyester and Ligno-cellulose Fibers Luc Averous 18. Man-made Cellulose Short Fiber Reinforced Oil and Bio-based Thermoplastics Johannes Ganster and Hans-Peter Fink 19. Degradation of Cellulose Based Polymer Composites J.K. Pandey, D.R. Saini and S.H. Ahn 20. Biopolymeric Nanocomposites as Environment benign Materials Pratheep Kumar Annamalai and Raj Pal Singh Part IV Applications of Cellulose Fiber Reinforced Po-lymer Composites 21. Cellulose Nanocomposites for High Performance Appli-cations Bibin Mathew Cherian, Alcides Lopes Leao, Sivoney Ferreira de Souza, Sabu Thomas, Laly A Pothan and M Kottaisamy 22. Sisal Fiber Based Polymer Composites and their Applica-tions Mohini Saxena, Asokan Pappu, Ruhi Haque and Anusha Sharma 23. Natural Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites and Na-nocomposites for Automotive Applications James Njuguna, Paul Wambua, Krzysztof Pielichowski and Kambiz Kayvantash 24. Natural Fiber Based Composite Building Materials B. Singh, M. Gupta, Hina Tarannum and Anamika Randhawa

Balbir Singh Kaith

Papers

Pretreatments of Natural Fibers and their Application as Reinforcing Material in Polymer Composites—A Review

Cellulose-Based Bio- and Nanocomposites: A Review

Cellulose Fibers: Bio- and Nano-Polymer Composites

Synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles and study of their antibacterial and antifungal properties

Cellulose fibers : bio- and nano-polymer composites : green chemistry and technology