Manufacturing industries are looking for the new materials everyday due to the rapid development in the technology and the need for excellent mechanical, thermal, wear and physical properties with low cost. Recently, composite materials have been used widely everywhere because of their exceptional characteristics and easiness in manufacturing. Since composite materials consist of a combination of two or more materials, they perform better than matrix materials. Commonly, composites are classified into three types: metal matrix composites, polymer matrix composites and ceramic matrix composites. Among all the composites, polymer-based composites are most attractive due to their low weight, ease in fabrication and cost effectiveness. The other reason being that the properties of polymers are altered by using various fibers and fillers to produce materials with extraordinary properties. Polymer composites can be classified based on the type of polymers used such as thermoplastic (Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Polystyrene, Polycarbonates, Polyvinyl chloride) and thermoset (Polyesters, Epoxy and Polyurethanes) based composites. Polymer matrix composites are divided into two types which are particle reinforced, and fiber reinforced. Again, fiber reinforced composites are classified into two types such as continuous fiber and discontinuous fiber reinforced composites.

Now, the development of environment friendly materials is much needed due to environmental consciousness and public attention. While considering environmentally friendly materials, natural fiber reinforced polymer composite materials are a good candidate which have good properties and are currently widely employed in many applications. A variety of natural fibers are available to use as reinforcement materials for the development of natural fiber reinforced composites. Plants, animals, and minerals are important sources for the natural fibers which can be treated chemically before being used as a reinforcement to improve the mechanical properties and bonding of reinforcement and matrix of the composites. Alternatively, hybrid polymer matrix composites have been introduced where two types of fibers are reinforced to improve the properties.

This Special Issue welcomes original research and review articles which focus of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites which can be widely used in many applications such as automobile, construction, aerospace and biomedical industries.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Natural fiber composites
• Bio based polymer composites synthesis methods and mechanical properties
• Microstructure machining behaviour
• Thermal properties, viscoelastic behaviour, tribology properties
• Natural-fiber composites in the automotive sector
• Polymer composites with functionalised natural fibers
• Multifunctional composites
• Fiber treatment
• Degradation of the natural fibers
• Reinforced polymers