Natural polysaccharide pectin has for the first time been grafted with polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) via ring-opening polymerization of β-butyrolactone. This copolymer, pectin-polyhydroxybutyrate (pec-PHB), was blended with PHB in various proportions and electrospun to produce nanofibers that exhibited uniform and bead-free nanostructures, suggesting the miscibility of PHB and pec-PHB. These nanofiber blends exhibited reduced fiber diameters from 499 to 336–426 nm and water contact angles from 123.8 to 88.2° on incorporation of pec-PHB. They also displayed 39–335% enhancement of elongation at break relative to pristine PHB nanofibers. pec-PHB nanofibers were found to be noncytotoxic and biocompatible. Human retinal pigmented epithelium (ARPE-19) cells were seeded onto pristine PHB and pec-PHB nanofibers as scaffold and showed good proliferation. Higher proportions of pec-PHB (pec-PHB10 and pec-PHB20) yielded higher densities of cells with similar characteristics to normal RPE cells. We propose, therefore, that nanofibers of pec-PHB have significant potential as retinal tissue engineering scaffold materials.

The desire for protection against UV exposure has resulted in the development of an increasing number of sunscreen agents. Lignin-based polymers have potential to serve as promising sunscreen agents as they have good UV absorption and antioxidant properties contributing towards the reduction of UV-induced skin damage. In this study, a series of lignin–poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (PEGMA) copolymers were synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) to enhance the dispersion efficiency of lignin in the commercial creams. These copolymers showed tunability in both molecular weight (10–25 kDa) and particle size (100–200 nm), as well as excellent antioxidant properties. Different amounts of such copolymers were blended into commercial creams to investigate their sunscreen performance. Results indicated that adding lignin–PEGMA copolymers into sunblock creams improved their SPF values from 15.36 ± 2.44 to 38.53 ± 0.26. In summary, such lignin-based polymers with good UV protection and antioxidant properties offer a green alternative for developing the next generation of sunscreen creams.