SUMMARY
Vegetable oil is readily available and inexpensive, can be used to synthesise various types of polymers. In our present study, epoxidised punnal oil has been synthesised from punnal oil via peroxy acetic acid generated ‘insitu’ by treating acetic acid with hydrogen peroxide as oxygen donor. The epoxidation is catalysed by using sulphuric acid. The epoxidation is confirmed by iodine value, oxirane oxygen analysis, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis.Natural fibers such as jute, sisal, banana, rice husk etc are locally available in abundance and have excellent physical and mechanical properties and can be used more effectively in the development of composite materials for various applications. Epoxy composite samples are prepared from the natural fiber with different ratios using triethylamine hardener and pthaleic anhydride. The mechanical properties viz. tensile strength and the physical properties observed are discussed in detail