Mechanical and cytotoxic analysis of cutlery developed from phenol‐formaldehyde modified soy‐jute composite

Abstract

The need of the hour is for the creation of natural fiber‐based, biodegradable cutlery in order to protect our planet from pollution caused by plastic. Soy resin creates a hard eco‐friendly/biodegradable composite when combined with phenol‐formaldehyde/resole and a natural fiber like jute. In this experiment, soy and other ingredients are combined with various weight percentages of resoles. Jute‐modified soy composites are characterized through Fourier transform infra‐red spectroscopy, mechanical testing and found maximum tensile strength of 46.62 MPa. After 8 weeks of microbial degradation testing on the generated composites, it is discovered that the mechanically optimized composite lost only 17.7% of its initial weight. Cutlery pieces are molded using the jute‐soy/jute‐resole modified soy composition, and cytotoxicity testing has shown that they are non‐toxic. Because they are non‐toxic and biodegradable, these composites can be used as a substitute to non‐biodegradable plastic in a range of industries.