A Sustainable Approach\nfor the Development of Cellulose-Based\nFood Container from Coconut Coir

The increasing demand for sustainable resources has revived\nthe\nresearch on cellulose over the last decades. Therefore, the current\nresearch focused on the synthesis of biopolymers for the development\nof viable tableware utensils from cellulose of coconut coir. The synthesized\nbiopolymer was characterized by using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)\nspectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron\nmicroscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), tensile strength, and contact\nangle. The synthesized biopolymer was converted to workable conditions\nthrough incorporation of starch, as a binder, at various ratios with\ncellulose, ranging from 1:9 to 10:0. Moreover, the most prominent\nfeatures of the synthesized biopolymer were obtained by the addition\nof glycerin as a plasticizer and citric acid as a cross-linker. At\n6:4 ratio of cellulose and binder showed excellent mechanical properties,\nand with the incorporation of cross-linker, the biopolymer possessed\nhigh tensile strength (18.6 MPa) and elongation (3.5%) in comparison\nto commercially available polystyrene polymer (1.5 MPa) and (2.6%),\nrespectively. Furthermore, the cross-linker citric acid bestows with\nnetwork structure that was confirmed with the change of contact angle\n(81°), FT-IR spectra, surface morphology, crystallinity index,\nand water vapor transmission rate (573 g/m<sup>2</sup>/d). TGA data\nrevealed the improved thermal properties of the biopolymer, and the\ndecomposed temperature was elevated from >223 to 238 °C in\nthe\npresence of network structure proved by cross-linker. The degree of\ndeterioration was assessed by soil burial test, highlighting the environmental\ncompatibility of the tableware. The purpose of the study was to synthesize\nsustainable tableware from waste source coir fiber for the reduction\nof harmful effects of synthetic counterpart.