Properties, Preparation and Application of Nature Fibers/Sustainable Polymers

Abstract

Plastics have become one of the most indispensable items in human life. For instance, they are the package of literally everything in our day-to-day life: food packaging, water bottles, coffee take-away cups, etc. However, the outrage of plastics’ production and their non-biodegradability has become a serious issue to the environment and human health. More and more plastics are manufactured to meet the demands in several industries and the growing rate of its production is soaring annually. Furthermore, there is not yet a way to degrade plastics, like polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate, in a both low cost and efficient way. Nature fibers and sustainable polymers have been discovered to be the substitute for plastic and has now been validated that they can be put into mass production. The specific kind of fibers and polymers possess excellent degradability, meaning they can be degraded into non-toxic substances, for example H2O and CO2. Meanwhile, they can be acquired from the nature, for instance, trees. This paper describes three materials that have prominent future in replacing conventional plastic to take over plastic’s dominating place in our daily use---poly lactic acid (PLA), cellulose and lignin. The three materials’ obtaining methodology, properties and current applications are discussed.