A high-performance, full-degradable bioinspired newspaper-based composite enhanced by borate ester bonds

Sustainable construction materials with high performance serve as an important role in our dairy life. However, constructing strong, green and cost-effective structural materials from waste feedstocks is still challenging. Inspired by the borate chemistry in natural plant cell walls, a high-performance, full-degradable and multifunctional newspaper (NP)-based laminated composite was successfully fabricated by boric acid (BA) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) via borate ester bonds and hydrogen bonds under simple hot-pressing process. Owing to the strong covalent borate ester bonds and abundant hydrogen bonds crosslinking, the resultant b-NP/PVA/BA composite exhibited outstanding tensile strength (147.83 ± 1.60 MPa), elongation at break (15.43 ± 0.56%) and toughness (17.80 ± 0.78 MJ/m3), which exceeded most wood-based composites and all reported NP-based composites. The b-NP/PVA/BA composite also showed excellent self-healing property and could be biodegraded completely within 4 months in soil. Furthermore, the obtained composite was useful for panel overlayers due to its excellent mechanical enhancement effect, antimildew and healthy properties. Notably, the cost-effective and green raw materials, as well as the facile and eco-friendly preparation, offered a competitive strategy to develop high-performance and full-biodegradable composites from waste resources, which can be extensively utilized in the fields of building, furniture and packaging.