Cellulose nanofiber reinforced starch film with rapid disintegration in marine environments

Abstract

Floating plastic debris in the ocean creates major environmental problems and threatens marine life. Conventional marine‐degradable plastics can remain in seawater for many years due to their strength and stability. In this study, we prepared a cellulose nanofiber‐reinforced starch film that rapidly degrades in marine environments. (2,2,6,6‐Tetramethylpiperidin‐1‐yl)oxyl (TEMPO) mediated oxidation was performed to prepare highly fibrillated TEMPO‐oxidized cellulose nanofiber (TCNF). The TCNF was blended with cationic starch (CS) to develop a TCNF/CS film, which exhibited adequate mechanical strength (~50 MPa) and freshwater durability. In contrast, the neat TCNF and CS films collapsed in freshwater. Results showed that the TCNF/CS film disintegrated and lost its strength and stability in seawater. The wet strength of the TCNF/CS film decreased to ~50 kPa after 28 days of seawater immersion, while that of the neat TCNF film was steady at a wet strength of ~25 MPa due to ionic crosslinking. Owing to its rapid disintegration ability in marine environments, the TCNF/CS film is a potential next‐generation packaging material that can help address the problem of floating debris.

Effect of pH on water durability of cellulose nanofiber-reinforced starch film

“…The di-aldehyde moieties on cellulose reduced marine-microbial degradability compared to native cellulose but through the incorporation of starch, the microbial attachment and degradability was improved. Anionic TCNF was blended with cationic starch to prepare poly-ion complex (PIC) based films, which exhibited rapid disintegration in the marine environment owing to the presence of counterions [25]. These kinds of starch blended TCNF films have higher optical transparency, mechanical strength, water durability, and degradability.…”

Fabrication and characterization of chemical crosslinked cellulose fiber by dissolving cellulose in alkali urea aqueous solvent

“…Nowadays, awareness of environmental protection is being rooted in the people's mind, which induced scientists focus on natural polymers for materials fabrication 1–3 . Cellulose, the most abundant natural polymer on earth, is a linear polymer of D‐glucose connected via β‐1,4 glycosidic bonds and has attracted much attention due to its renewability, low‐cost and biodegradability, and so forth 4 .…”

“…Nowadays, awareness of environmental protection is being rooted in the people's mind, which induced scientists focus on natural polymers for materials fabrication. [1][2][3] Cellulose, the most abundant natural polymer on earth, is a linear polymer of D-glucose connected via β-1,4 glycosidic bonds and has attracted much attention due to its renewability, low-cost and biodegradability, and so forth. 4 Thus, the application of cellulose to make materials to instead of plastics, which is petroleum-based polymer materials with nondegradable, has a great significance for environmental protection and comprehensive utilization of resources.…”