Strong, functional and hydro-stable straws for plastic replacement

초록

Disposable plastic straws negatively impact the environment and human health while their alternatives such as paper straws are not satisfactory owing to limited mechanical performance and poor user experience. In this report, all-natural and biocompatible straws are fabricated from starch and polyvinyl alcohol slurries respectively. The functionality of the slurries is enhanced by integrating economical resources such as kraft lignin and citric acid. By doctor blading of the slurries followed by subsequent heat treatment, self-bonding straws are fabricated without the use of binders or adhesives. Through heat treatment, our straws achieve excellent strength than paper-based straws. Owing to the strong ester bond network, the straws display superior performance that surpasses commercial plastic counterparts thus meeting the requirements for practical applications. Specifically, the straws are hydro-stable for over 24 hrs. and display a desirable closed-loop degradability aspect making our straws eco-friendly substitutes for synthetic plastic straws. © 2023 SPIE.

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