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In this era of green and sustainable manufacturing, natural fibre-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 fibre into wheat gluten as a possible replacement of plastic disposables. The developed composites are made up of different mass fractions of Kibisu silk fibre 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 significant changes in the quality of the soil. FTIR studies revealed improved interaction between wheat gluten, glycerol and Kibisu fibres 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, a magnetically separable potent solid acid nanocatalyst with a facile preparation technique was fabricated via incorporation of fibroin as a natural polymer with Fe3O4 nanoparticles. In fact, the Fe3O4 nanoparticles were thoroughly covered by the fibroin protein, followed by treating with chlorosulfuric acid for surface sulfonation. Next, physicochemical properties were characterized using FT-IR, XRD, TGA, SEM, EDX, and TEM techniques to elucidate the Fe3O4@fibroin-SO3H structure. The analyses proved the core–shell structure and the presence of sulfonyl on the surface. The Fe3O4@fibroin-SO3H showed significant activity in the tetrazole derivatives synthesis reactions under solvent-free and relatively mild conditions. The structure of the products was validated using 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR. The prepared catalyst showed good stability and reusability even after easy separation by an external magnet for four consecutive reaction rounds. Considering the crucial importance of sulfuric acid catalysis, we believe that Fe3O4@fibroin-SO3H will find wide applications as a separable, green, and potent solid acid nanocatalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]