The automotive industry has used plastics almost since the beginning. The lightness, flexibility, and many qualities of plastics make them ideal for the automotive industry, reducing cars’ overall weight and fuel consumption. Engineering plastics in this industry belong to the high-performance segment of non-renewable resources. These plastics exhibit higher properties than commodity plastics. Fortunately, unlike recycled commodity plastics, the super properties and high-performance characteristics make engineering plastics effectively reused after recycling. The substitution of these fossil-fuel-derived plastics adds to the solution of lightweighting, a much-needed solution to waste management, and solves industrial and ecological issues surrounding plastic disposal. All major vehicle manufacturers worldwide use bioplastics and bio-based plastics, including natural-fiber composites and engineering plastics reinforced with natural fibers. Changing the source of plastics to raw materials from renewable resources is the logical approach to sustainability. Thus, high-quality plastics, recycled plastics, bio-based plastics, and biodegradable plastics could be exploited from design, making sustainability an integral concept of mobility development. This review analyzes that switching from fossil-fuel- to renewable-sources-derived plastics is a step toward meeting the current environmental goals for the automotive industry, including electric cars.

Initiatives to reduce plastic waste are currently under development worldwide. As a part of it, the European Union and private and public organizations in several countries are designing and implementing regulations for single-use plastics. For example, by 2030, plastic packaging and food containers must be reusable or recyclable. In another approach, researchers are developing biopolymers using biodegradable thermoplastics, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), to replace fossil derivatives. However, their production capacity, high production costs, and poor mechanical properties hinder the usability of these biopolymers. To overcome these limitations, biomaterials reinforced with natural fibers are acquiring more relevance as the world of bioplastics production is increasing. This review presents an overview of PHA–vegetal fiber composites, the effects of the fiber type, and the production method’s impact on the mechanical, thermal, barrier properties, and biodegradability, all relevant for biopackaging. To acknowledge the behaviors and trends of the biomaterials reinforcement field, we searched for granted patents focusing on bio-packaging applications and gained insight into current industry developments and contributions.

Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the main components of biodegradable and biocompatible composites. Bacterial cellulose from kombucha membranes is an excellent candidate to be used as a natural filler of eco-composites because it is renewable, has low cost, low density, and acceptable specific strength properties, and is biodegradable. The study aimed to prepare composites of PLA and bacterial cellulose to produce a biodegradable and compostable material. The bacterial microcellulose was obtained from kombucha membranes and blended with PLA by extrusion. The composites contained a PLA with 1%, 3%, and 5% of cellulose. We characterized the PLA, bacterial microcellulose, and composites to ascertain their size and aspect, degree of crystallinity, distribution of the cellulose into PLA, and their mechanical properties. We observed an increase in crystallinity proportional to the cellulose content for the blends and found that the 3% cellulose blend withstands the stress of up to 40 MPa and temperatures up to 120°C before distortion.

Preparation of cellulose nanowhiskers (CNWs) has grown significantly because they are useful for a wide range of applications. Additional advantage in their design requires that they meet the following characteristics: nontoxicity, abundance, sustainability, renewability, and low cost. To address these requirements, nanowhiskers were prepared fromOpuntia ficus-indica(nopal) cellulose by acid hydrolysis. Monitoring the process of CNWs preparation is necessary to ensure maximum yield and purity of the end product. In this study, the cellulose preparation was monitored by analyzing microscopic morphology by SEM; the purity degree was determined by fluorescence microscopy as a novel and rapid technique, and FTIR spectroscopy was used for confirmation. The additional parameters that monitored the process were the crystallinity index by X-ray diffraction and the size of the particle by dynamic light scattering (DLS). Nopal cellulose was found to be comparable to commercial microcrystalline cellulose. The use ofOpuntia ficus-indicais a viable alternative for the production of highly pure CNWs and the strategy to supervise the preparation process was rapid.

Implants of materials that are typically considered inert have been shown to cause early inflammatory complications. In addition, implant wear products may also cause overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines in the long run. Among the cytokines is tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF α ), which not only participates in the inflammatory response but also in the degradation of the bone. Therefore, a lack of production of TNF α by the cells of the immune system in contact with a candidate material for implant design is an indication of the acceptance of the biomaterial, and predicts the inflammatory response responsible for implant intolerance. There is no standard laboratory test to evaluate an individual response of a patient to a possible implant, although the use of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) has been suggested. Here, we evaluated the biocompatibility and cytotoxicity of films made of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) reinforced with different concentrations of cellulose nanowhiskers (CNWs) using PBMCs from healthy donors. Cells from healthy donors were cultured in the presence of films of the biomaterial during 24 h and 7 d and the cell viability and proinflammatory cytokines TNF α and IL6 production were measured. We confirmed that PHB, CNWs and the reinforced blends (PHB/CNWs) are safe and lack cytotoxicity in human cells, which make them good candidates for implant materials.

This work focuses on the synthesis of titanium nitride–carbon (TiN–carbon) composites by the thermal decomposition of a titanyl phthalocyanine (TiN(TD)) precursor into TiN. The synthesis of TiN was also performed using the sol-gel method (TiN(SG)) of an alkoxide/urea. The structure and morphology of the TiN–carbon and its precursors were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM, EDS, and XPS. The FTIR results confirmed the presence of the titanium phthalocyanine (TiOPC) complex, while the XRD data corroborated the decomposition of TiOPC into TiN. The resultant TiN exhibited a cubic structure with the FM3-M lattice, aligning with the crystal system of the synthesized TiN via the alkoxide route. The XPS results indicated that the particles synthesized from the thermal decomposition of TiOPC resulted in the formation of TiN–carbon composites. The TiN particles were present as clusters of small spherical particles within the carbon matrix, displaying a porous sponge-like morphology. The proposed thermal decomposition method resulted in the formation of metal nitride composites with high carbon content, which were used as anodes for Li-ion half cells. The TiN–carbon composite anode showed a good specific capacity after 100 cycles at a current density of 100 mAg⁻¹.