Date palm, the most important tree in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, produces a huge amount of waste yearly in the form of fibrous materials, dried fruits, and seeds. Such waste is a great source of excellent degradable biomass that can be used in numerous applications as natural fiber composites, active carbon precursors, and even nano-featured sheets. That rich resource is yearly burned on date palm farms due to the lack of effective processing strategies. This review offers a scientific evaluation for date palm waste in terms of specifications and applications, and it proposes pre-treatment processes to produce fibrous and powder raw materials to be used in some engineering and industrial applications. Additionally, some possible advanced industrial applications, such as active carbon and natural fiber composites, will be discussed and reviewed.

A chitosan-based nanocomposite film with tannic acid (TA) as a cross-linker and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂) as a reinforcing agent was developed with a solution casting technique. TA and TiO₂ are biocompatible with chitosan, and this paper studied the synergistic effect of the cross-linker and the reinforcing agent. The addition of TA enhanced the ultraviolet blocking and mechanical properties of the chitosan-based nanocomposite film. The reinforcement of TiO₂ in chitosan/TA further improved the nanocomposite film’s mechanical properties compared to the neat chitosan or chitosan/TA film. The thermal stability of the chitosan-based nanocomposite film was slightly enhanced, whereas the swelling ratio decreased. Interestingly, its water vapor barrier property was also significantly increased. The developed chitosan-based nanocomposite film showed potent antioxidant activity, and it is promising for active food packaging.

In this research, the special effects of graphene oxide nanoparticle charging (0, 2, 4, 6, wt.%) on the properties of medium-density fiberboard were examined. Physical and mechanical properties of the panels were determined conferring the method of European Norm standards. The consequences exhibited substantial enhancement in mechanical properties, explicitly in modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity and internal bonding for 2–6% nanoparticle addition in a urea–formaldehyde resin. The mechanical properties, i.e., internal bond, modulus of elasticity and modulus of rupture were improved by 28.5%, 19.22% and 38.8%, respectively. Results also show a clear enhancement in thickness swelling and water absorption. The physical properties of thickness swelling, water absorption and thermal conductivity were improved up to 50%, 19.5% and 39.79%, respectively. The addition of graphene oxide nanoparticles strongly affected the curing time of the urea–formaldehyde resin and improved its thermal stability.

Electrochemical technologies like supercapacitors and water-splitting electrolysis are gaining traction due to their impressive efficiency in both energy storage and generation. A hydrothermal technique was employed to synthesize a metal–organic framework (MOF) containing zinc and nickel. Glycolic acid (GA), a naturally occurring biodegradable ligand, was utilized to explore its potential for incorporation into the MOF heterostructure. The ZnNi-MOF (GA) composites showed a notable specific capacity of 1648 C g⁻¹ (2060 F/g) under a current density of 1.0 A g⁻¹ at 70 °C. The study investigated a supercapacitor system design where a combination of polyaniline-doped activated carbon was used for the negative electrode and a zinc-nickel metal–organic framework (GA) was used for the positive electrode. The synthesized ZnNi-MOF (GA)//AC energy storage device demonstrated a specific capacity of 110 C g⁻¹ (55 F g⁻¹) at a higher current density of 2.0 A g⁻¹. The recyclability and stability of device (ZnNi-MOF (GA)//AC) were evaluated using 10000 charge–discharge cycles, yielding an 86% capacity retention. The ZnNi-MOF (GA) composite displayed outstanding catalytic ability in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in comparison to other tested materials, achieving the lowest Tafel slope of 42.79 mV/dec. The findings of our research suggest that ZnNi-MOF (GA) exhibits desirable characteristics that make it a promising material for electrodes in the applications of supercapattery and HER.