Natural plant fibre composites have been developed for the production of a variety of industrial products, with benefits including biodegradability and environmental protection. Bamboo fibre materials have attracted broad attention as reinforcement polymer composites due to their environmental sustainability, mechanical properties, and recyclability, and they can be compared with glass fibres. This review classifies and describes the various procedures that have been developed to extract fibres from raw bamboo culm. There are three main types of procedures: mechanical, chemical and combined mechanical and chemical extraction. Composite preparation from extracted bamboo fibres and various thermal analysis methods are also classified and analysed. Many parameters affect the mechanical properties and composite characteristics of bamboo fibres and bamboo composites, including fibre extraction methods, fibre length, fibre size, resin application, temperature, moisture content and composite preparation techniques. Mechanical extraction methods are more eco-friendly than chemical methods, and steam explosion and chemical methods significantly affect the microstructure of bamboo fibres. The development of bamboo fibre-reinforced composites and interfacial adhesion fabrication techniques must consider the type of matrix, the microstructure of bamboo and fibre extraction methods.

Bamboo among other plants has unique properties and massive variety. The properties of bamboo species vary between species and along their culms. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of four bamboo species: Dendrocalamus pendulus (DP), Dendrocalamus asper (DA), Gigantochloa levis (GL), and Gigantochloa scortechinii (GS), and their three portions (bottom (B), middle (M), and top (T)). The number of fibre strands in vascular bundles and the single fibres extracted from every portion was studied. The distribution of fibres varied along the bamboo culms and between species. The DP species showed the highest water content and water absorption and the lowest mechanical properties. The DA species exhibited the best mechanical and physical properties. Moreover, the bottom portion of every species indicated the highest aspect ratio and tensile properties. The results indicated that before the application of bamboo culms in composite materials, the bamboo species should be characterized so that it can be utilised effectively as a renewable reinforcement in composites.

Bamboo, among other natural plants, has a special structure, with different characterization along the culms and between species. In this study, the thermal stabilities of four bamboo species, named Dendrocalamus pendulus (DP), Dendrocalamus asper (DA), Gigantochloa levis (GL), and Gigantochloa scortechinii (GS), were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) under a nitrogen atmosphere. Each species was divided into three different portions: bottom, middle, and top, and fibres were manually extracted from the specified sections of each species. The thermal analysis of extracted bamboo fibres indicated that the thermal degradation behaviour of each bamboo species varied from bottom to top and between species. However, these variations were lower in DA species compared to GS, GL, and DP, because of minor differences between lignocellulosic components of its three portions. The top and middle portions of the four species degraded at a higher temperature range (314 to 379 °C) than the bottom portions. The results of this study suggest that DA and GS species, according to their thermal stabilities, are most suitable for use as reinforcement in composite materials.

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