Abstract
The growing environmental challenges posed by plastic waste from disposable tableware highlight the urgent need for sustainable alternatives. Traditional plastics decompose over centuries, generating microplastics that threaten ecosystems and human health. While lignin has emerged as a promising material for plastic replacement, its inherent dark brown color and processing challenges in paper-based products have limited its application, particularly in food-contact materials. To address these limitations, we have developed biodegradable sandwich-structured paper composites comprising parchment paper as surface layers and a lignin-polymer core with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polylactic acid (PLA). This innovative structure eliminates the need for binders, minimizing potential food contamination, and enables direct application as packaging or molded tableware. Lignin micro- and nano-particles (LMNP) enhances durability and provides natural water and oil resistance without harmful additives, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), while PVA and PLA improve the composite's tenacity. The resulting material, composed of 65 wt% lignin, demonstrates excellent water and oil resistance, with no penetration exceeding 1 h, and exhibits enhanced tensile strength (45 MPa), making it a viable and eco-friendly alternative for disposable tableware.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 112763 |
| Journal | Composites Part B: Engineering |
| Volume | 306 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2025 |
Funding
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Zhongjin Zhou reports financial support was provided by China Scholarship Council. Siqun Wang has patent pending to University of Tennessee Research Foundation. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.This work is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, project award no. A22-0082, and the Hatch Act Capacity Program, project award no. TEN00626 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the University of Tennessee's Center for Renewable Carbon, and the China Scholarship Council. The authors also acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office. This manuscript was authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the DOE. The U.S. government retains, and the publisher—by accepting this article for publication—acknowledges that the U.S. government retains, a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). This work is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative , project award no. A22-0082 , and the Hatch Act Capacity Program , project award no. TEN00626 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture , the University of Tennessee's Center for Renewable Carbon , and the China Scholarship Council . The authors also acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office. This manuscript was authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the DOE. The U.S. government retains, and the publisher—by accepting this article for publication—acknowledges that the U.S. government retains, a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. The DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- Lignin
- Packaging
- Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
- Plastic
- Sandwich-structured composites
- Water- and oil-resistance