Biocompatibility, Biodegradability, and Environmental Safety of PLA/Cellulose Composites

The progress of PLA/cellulose composite as a substitution for petroleum-based synthetics has been an area of attention due to its excellent performance for several applications, as listed above. The discussion on biocompatibility, biodegradability, and environmental safety as discussed here will benefit future development in this area. The progress on biocompatibility, biodegradability, and environmental safety of PLA/cellulose composites was summarized as follow: Biocompatibility of PLA/cellulose composites revealed its potential to be used in biomedical industries, especially in the development of scaffolds and wound dressing mats. The presence of cellulose in PLA has overcome the shortcoming of PLA and enhanced the biocompatibility properties. Biodegradability of PLA/cellulose composites is scarcely being reported. However, this composite has an excellent biodegradability property which will benefit several applications especially packaging. Environmental safety of PLA/cellulose composites is one of the important criteria. There is no serious issue related to the ecotoxicity of these materials toward the environment. Therefore, PLA/cellulose composites are considered safe for the environment.