One-pot construction of degradable, stretchable, cytocompatible and transparent hydrogel for potential fresh-keeping film alternatives

Fresh postharvest fruits and vegetables are severely wasted due to quality deterioration, such as moisture loss or microbial infection. The widely used plastic fresh-keeping film has been questioned for its environmental and food safety concerns, so it is urgent to develop green plastic alternatives. In this paper, carboxymethyl cellulose/polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel was efficiently prepared by a one-pot method at room temperature driven by multiple covalent crosslinking and hydrogen bonding. The results showed that the hydrogel exhibited uniform and regular porous structure, satisfactory tensile strength (7934 Pa), tensile elongation (483.27 %), soil degradability (complete degradation within 45 days), transparency and cytocompatibility. Considering the advantages of simple preparation, biodegradability and excellent performance, CMC/PVA hydrogel is expected to attract wide attention as a novel degradable fresh-keeping film in fruit and vegetable preservation.