Ultrastrong, Thermally Stable, and Food-Safe Seaweed-Based Structural Material for Tableware

Widely used disposable plastic tableware is usually buried or directly discharged into the natural environment after using, which poses potential threats to the natural environment and human health. To solve this problem, nondegradable plastic tableware needs to be replaced by tableware composed of biodegradable structural materials with both food safety and the excellent mechanical and thermal properties. Here, a food-safe sargassum cellulose nanofiber (SCNF) is extracted from common seaweed in an efficient and low energy consuming way under mild reaction conditions. Then, by assembling the SCNF into a dense bulk material, a strong sargassum cellulose nanofiber structural material (SCNSM) with high strength (283 MPa) and high thermal stability (>160 degrees C) can be prepared. The SCNSM also possesses good machinability, which can be processed into tableware with different shapes, e.g., knives and forks. The overall performance of the SCNSM-based tableware is better than commercial plastic, wood-based, and poly(lactic acid) tableware, which shows great application potential in the tableware field.

Automated summary

Disposable plastic tableware poses threats to the environment and human health. To solve this problem, biodegradable tableware made of nanofiber materials extracted from seaweed is developed. This material has high strength and thermal stability, and can be processed into different shapes of tableware. The overall performance of this tableware is better than commercial plastic, wood-based, and poly(lactic acid) tableware.