For practical applications, both environmental and economic aspects are highly required to consider in the development of recycling of fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs) encountering their end-of-life. Here, a sustainable, low cost, and efficient approach for the recycling of the glass fibre (GF) from GF reinforced epoxy polymer (GFRP) waste is introduced, based on a microwave-assisted chemical oxidation method. It was found that in a one-step process using microwave irradiation, a mixture of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) as a green oxidiser and tartaric acid (TA) as a natural organic acid could be used to decompose the epoxy matrix of a waste GFRP up to 90% yield. The recycled GFs with ~92.7% tensile strength, ~99.0% Young’s modulus, and ~96.2% strain-to-failure retentions were obtained when compared to virgin GFs (VGFs). This short microwave irradiation time using these green and sustainable recycling solvents makes this a significantly low energy consumption approach for the recycling of end-of-life GFRPs.

The progress in the synthesis of porous carbon fibers and their performance improvement mechanisms for energy and environmental applications are comprehensively reviewed, providing guidelines for the future development of this emerging material.

For most carbon‐based materials, hierarchical porous structure including well‐defined macropores, mesopores, and micropores is commonly seen in 3D aerogels, monoliths, or some carbothermic natural biomass. However, because of the filiform character and long draw ratio, it is difficult to achieve such pore network as well as attain excellent mechanical performance in a 1D single carbon fiber system. To address this issue, an innovative hierarchical porous and hollow carbon textile (HPHCT) is developed via the “dynamic template (KOH, SiO₂, and Al₂O₃) calcination” strategy. Unlike conventional one‐step activated carbonized fiber simply with meso or micropores, the fabricated textile generates honeycomb‐like macropores uniformly spreading on fiber surface. More importantly, the ultra‐lightweight yet flexible HPHCT is mechanically robust, superior to ordinary carbonized one. In addition, it delivers high capacitance of maximum 220 F g⁻¹ as well as keeping long term stability with 100% retention after 10 000 cycles as freestanding electrodes in supercapacitor. Meanwhile, the all‐solid integrated symmetric HPHCT supercapacitors demonstrates its high potential in powering electronics for wearable energy storage application.

The most known analogue of graphene, molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanosheet, has recently captured great interest because it can present properties beyond graphene in several high technological applications. Nonetheless, the lack of a feasible, sustainable, and scalable approach, in which synthesizing and functionalization of 2H-MoS₂ nanosheets occur simultaneously, is still a challenge. Herein, a hydrothermal treatment has been utilised to reduce the effect of breaking mechanisms on the lateral size of produced nanosheets during the ball milling process. It was demonstrated that the hydrothermal pre-treatment led to the initial intercalation of an organic molecule such as 4,4′-diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS) within the stacked MoS₂ sheets. Such a phenomenon can promote the horizontal shear forces and cause sliding and peeling mechanisms to be the dominated ones during low energy ball milling. Such combined methods can result in the production of 2H functionalized MoS₂ nanosheets. The resultant few layers showed an average lateral dimension of more than 640 nm with the thickness as low as ~6 nm and a surface area as high as ~121.8 m²/g. These features of the synthesised MoS₂ nanosheets, alongside their functional groups, can result in fully harnessing the reinforcing potential of MoS₂ nanosheets for improvement of mechanical properties in different types of polymeric matrices.