Tough and Strong All-Biomass Plastics from Agricultural and Forest Wastes via Constructing an Aggregate of Hydrogen-Bonding Networks

Abstract

The development of all-biomass materials to replace conventional plastics has been gradually becoming a focus. However, all-biomass plastics, especially those fabricated from agricultural and forestry wastes, have the obstacles of poor formability and/or low toughness. Herein, we demonstrated a facile, efficient, and easy-to-scale method to significantly improve the formability and toughness of biomass materials via constructing an aggregate of hydrogen-bonding networks, where the relatively weak hydrogen bonding could be sacrificed during stretching. After a continuous preparation process that combined a paper-making process with an in situ welding process, the regenerated cellulose material with a layered microstructure was spontaneously formed. The interlayer hydrogen-bonding interactions could dissipate energy during stretching. As a result, the cellulose plastics were tough and strong. The tensile strength, strain, and toughness reached 154.9 MPa, 57.7%, and 81.76 MJ/m3, respectively, which were markedly higher than those of previous cellulose-based materials. The corresponding cellulose hydrogel exhibited an excellent strength of 9.5 MPa and a high strain of 171.4% also. During this scalable process, a 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EmimAc) aqueous solution worked as a dispersant and a solvent, and a high solid content of cellulose/EmimAc (20 wt %) was used. Based on such an effective method, various agricultural and forestry wastes, including corn straw, wheat straw, grass, and wood powder, could be directly processed into high-tough all-biomass films, indicating a huge potential in ecofriendly materials, environmental protection, and bioresource utilization.

Fabrication of Shaped Chitin Fibers by Gradient Regeneration Combined with a Physical Pressure Method

“…In consonance with the burgeoning emphasis on sustainable development, the incorporation of agricultural byproducts (such as wood powder and cotton linters) and marine byproducts (including algin and chitin) into the realm of fiber production has emerged as an eminent and discernible trend within the domain of materials science. , …”