Surface Modification and Coating of Fibers, Polymers, and Composites: Techniques, Properties, and Applications

Surface Modification and Coating of Fibers, Polymers, and Composites: Techniques, Properties, and Applications outlines techniques, concepts, characterization, and applications of surface modification for fibers, polymers, and coated fiber-reinforced composites allowing for precision engineering of the mechanical and thermal properties, electrical conductivity, and chemical resistance of these materials. A broad range of fiber types are covered and the book highlights how surface modification enhances the durability and sustainability of them.

The book starts with chapters that discuss surface modification techniques for a range of different fibers and composites, including animal-based, mineral, leaf-based, root-based, and more. The next section of the book covers surface coating techniques as well as morphology, characterization, and computational modeling of surface-coated materials, and the book concludes with a section that outlines the properties and applications of coated fiber composites.

• Outlines techniques, concepts, characterization, and applications of surface modification of fibers, polymers, and coated fiber-reinforced composites
• Techniques provided allow for precision tailoring of the mechanical and thermal properties, electrical conductivity, and chemical resistance of natural and synthetic fibers
• Highlights the sustainability features of surface modification of these materials
• Covers a variety of fiber types including synthetic, biofibers, MXene, and graphene-based

Dr. Sanjay Mavinkere Rangappa is a Principal Research Scientist and Associate Professor at King Mongkut 's University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand. He also serves as an Advisor within the President' s Office for University Promotion and Development towards International goals. Dr. Rangappa is the Executive Editor of Book Cluster: Fiber Science and Fibrous Composite Materials ( Elsevier), a former Associate Editor of Heliyon (Materials Science), and an Associate Editor of Frontier Materials Journals. He acts as a Board Member and Editor for various international journals in materials science and composites. He has reviewed over 250 international journals, including for Nature, Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley, as well as book proposals and conference submissions. He has published more than 425 articles in top- tier peer- reviewed journals indexed by SCI/Scopus, 13 editorial issues, 100 book chapters, and 70 books as an Editor with leading publishers such as Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley. Additionally, he authored 3 books published by Elsevier and has presented research at numerous national and international conferences. Over 25 of his articles are highly cited in journals like the Journal of Cleaner Production and Carbohydrate Polymers. Dr. Rangappa is the lead editor for several special issues and has a Google Scholar citation count exceeding 39, 000, with an H- index of 100 and An i 100- Index of 475. He holds 1 US Patent, 11 UK Design Patents, 1 Thailand Patent, and 5 Indian patents. He has delivered keynote and invited talks globally, including Russia, South Africa, Malaysia, and India. Currently, he is an Academic Visitor at The University of Portsmouth, UK (2024), with upcoming visiting positions at various Malaysian and Indonesian universities from 2024 to 2027. His research focuses on Natural fiber composites, Polymer Composites, and Advanced Material Technology. He received the ‘Top Peer Reviewer 2019’ award from Publons, and the KMUTNB ‘Outstanding Young Researcher’ (2020) and' Outstanding Researcher’ (2021) awards. Recognized as one of the top 1% most- cited scientists by Stanford University (2019-2025), he ranks 5th in Thailand overall and 2nd In the Polymers category for 2023. He is also listed among the ‘Top 100 Scientists’ in Thailand by AD Scientific Index.

Dr. Sathish Kumar Palaniappan, Research Scientist (Specialist 2). Natural Composites Research Group Lab, The Sirindhorn International Thai – German Graduate School of Engineering (TGGS), King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand.

Dr. Sathish Kumar Palaniappan is currently working as a Research Scientist at King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand, where he did his postdoctoral research. He finished his bachelor’s degree in engineering (Mechanical) at the University College of Engineering Villupuram (constituent college of Anna University), Tamil Nadu, India, in 2012. He received his Master of Engineering from Kongu Engineering College in Perundurai, Tamil Nadu, India, in 2014 working in the stream of CAD/CAM. He also finished his PhD in the Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, West Bengal, India in 2021. His research interests include polymer nanocomposites/composites; polymer blends and biomaterials; thin film coatings; tribology; bio-degradable polymers; machining characteristics of ceramics and polymer composites; natural and synthetic polymers; multi-functional composite materials and nanomaterials; and natural fiber reinforced composites. He has been granted one Indian patent and has published more than 70 research papers in international/national journals and 32 book chapters with highly reputed publishers.

Dr. Ramesh Manickam is currently working as Professor & Vice-Principal at KIT-Kalaignar Karunanidhi Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, India. He has published over 60 research papers in SCI and Scopus indexed Journals, 60 book chapters and edited 2 books. He is the recipient of the All-India best Research award and best Publication award from the Society for Advancement of Human and Nature, India. His current research is focused on bio-materials, polymer nanocomposites, hybrid composites and additive manufacturing. He is a regular reviewer for more than 100 reputed Journals from Elsevier, Springer, Nature, SAGE, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, and RSC. He is recognized by Stanford University’s list of the world’s Top 2% of the Most-Cited Scientists in Single Year Citation Impact 2022.

Dr. Rajeshkumar Lakshminarasimhan is currently working as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Alliance University, Bengaluru, India. He has completed his post-doctoral research at King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand and his doctoral degree at Anna University, Chennai in Composite materials. His research areas include metal matrix and polymer matrix composites, tribology, corrosion and surface engineering, and powder metallurgy. Also, Polymer biocomposites, biofibers and bio fillers, testing and characterization of fibers and composites. He has been granted one Indian patent, three international patents and nine published Indian patents. He has published 37 book chapters and more than 120 research papers in WoS/Scopus indexed journals and International and National conferences. He is an Editorial Board Member for Scientific Reports (Nature), and Associate Section Editor for Heliyon (Materials Science), an Elsevier journal. He is also the reviews editor for the Journal of Thermal Science and Energy Systems and more than 40 reputed international journals. He was listed in the Top 2% of scientists in the world by Stanford University during 2023

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Suchart Siengchin is a former President of King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok and currently serves as the Director of TechnoPark at the same university. He earned his Dipl.-Ing. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Giessen/Friedberg, Germany in 1999, followed by an M.Sc. in Polymer Technology from the University of Applied Sciences Aalen in 2002, and another M.Sc. in Material Science from Erlangen-Nürnberg University in 2004. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering (Dr.-Ing.) from the Institute for Composite Materials at the University of Kaiserslautern in 2008, including postdoctoral research at Kaiserslautern University and Purdue University's School of Materials Engineering. In 2016, he received his habilitation from Chemnitz University in Saxony, Germany. In 2024, he was honored as an Honorary Fellow by RWTH Aachen University. He has also served as a Lecturer in Production and Material Engineering at the Sirindhorn International Thai-German Graduate School of Engineering, KMUTNB, and has been a full Professor and President of KMUTNB. He received the Outstanding Researcher Award in 2010, 2012, and 2013 at KMUTNB. His research focuses on Polymer Processing and Composite Materials. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Applied Science and Engineering Progress, a Q1 indexed journal on Scopus, and has authored over 600 peer-reviewed journal articles, 15 editorial contributions, more than 100 book chapters, one authored book, and over 50 edited books. He has presented at more than 70 international and national conferences related to Materials Science and Engineering. Recognized as one of the world’s top 2% scientists by Stanford University for 2021- 2022, he received the National Excellence Researcher Award (Engineering and Research Industry) from Thailand's National Research Council in 2021, and has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2025 by Clarivate.