Abstract:
In this era of green and sustainable manufacturing, natural fbre-reinforced polymer composites (NFPC) have been widely
accepted as the potential alternatives for polymer matrix composites (PMC) or any other non-biodegradable composites.
Despite the increasing need to replace plastic bottles, bags, disposable plastic plates and trays, seedling pots used in our
day to day life, not many studies have been made in this direction. The current work aims at developing a hundred percent
biodegradable composite by reinforcing waste Kibisu silk fbre into wheat gluten as a possible replacement of plastic disposables. The developed composites are made up of diferent mass fractions of Kibisu silk fbre reinforced into plasticised
wheat gluten. The prepared composites have been characterised to obtain the best combination. The developed composites
were found to have adequate tensile property, mass degradation at a considerably high temperature and most importantly,
the outstanding rate of biodegradation under normal atmospheric conditions. The soil quality test before and after degradation also showed no signifcant changes in the quality of the soil. FTIR studies revealed improved interaction between wheat
gluten, glycerol and Kibisu fbres upon addition of natural lemon extract as crosslinker. Overall results indicate that the
developed biocomposites have the potential to substitute harmful plastic disposables like plastic seedling pots and plates,
disposable hospital tray, dustbin, etc.
