Furthermore, Taiwan’s agricultural skills have been well developed; hence, there are plentiful kinds of agricultural products. On the other hand, the total agricultural wastes generated each year in Taiwan amount to approximately 23 million tons according to investigation reports. Incorporating the plant and waste fibers into polymers would not only enhance the thermal and mechanical properties, but also reduce the cost of the materials, and form a green composite. In this study, we actively developed a process for manufacturing high performance plant and waste fiber- reinforced epoxies; these plant and waste fibers were covalently bonded onto epoxy chains via coupling agent and curing reaction in order to improve the compatibility between fibers and epoxy.
Subsequently, the mechanical and thermal properties of epoxy would be enhanced with the respective addition of the fibers. Furthermore, this type of reinforced epoxy composites would be more environmentally-friendly than would the artificial additive-reinforced ones. This approach would not only reduce the waste effectively or re-use the waste, but also lower the costs of the materials.