Abstract
As a novel biodegradable material, poly (vinyl) alcohol (PVA)/starch (ST)/ glycerol (GL)/ halloysite nanotube (HNT) nanocomposite films were prepared by solution casting at the HNT contents of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 3 and 5 wt%. Water absorption capacity and water solubility of nanocomposite films were decreased remarkably by 44.24 and 48.05%, respectively, with increasing the HNT content from 0 to 5 wt% when compared with those of biopolymer matrices. Moreover, the water contact angle of nanocomposite films increased by 21.36o with the incorporation of HNTs. The presence of HNTs appeared to reduce the overall migration rates for PVA/ST/GL/HNT nanocomposite films when interacting with either hydrophilic or lipophilic food simulants. However, the migration rates of HNTs alone were enhanced with increasing the HNT contents in hydrophilic, lipophilic and acidic food simulants. On the other hand, the biodegradation rate and light transmittance of nanocomposite films were reduced linearly by 18.56 and 26.90% with increasing the HNT content from 0 to 5 wt%. Overall, novel PVA/ST/GL/HNT nanocomposite films in this study offer highly competitive material with excellent water resistance, good biodegradability and acceptable transparency to be potentially used for sustainable food packaging particularly targeting lipophilic and acidic foodstuffs.
Highlights
Petro-based polymers generally possess good mechanical, thermal and barrier properties with easy processability and relatively low cost, which makes them widely used in different industrial sectors such as construction and building, appliances, and material packaging (Siracusa et al, 2008; Sam et al, 2016; Abdullah et al, 2017)
High hydrophilicity of starch with good water absorption inevitably yielded the increase in water absorption capacity (Wa) for poly (vinyl) alcohol (PVA)/ST blends (Ali, 2016), which was believed to be associated with typical hygroscopic nature of starch (Azahari et al, 2011; Ismail and Zaaba, 2011; Salleh et al, 2017)
The GL plasticization effect in PVA/ST/GL blends gave rise to much lower Wa, which may benefit from its improvement of phase miscibility and constituent interactions, as evidenced by Zou et al (2008) to conclude that the presence of GL improved the compatibility between PVA and ST and reduced the Wa
Summary
Petro-based polymers generally possess good mechanical, thermal and barrier properties with easy processability and relatively low cost, which makes them widely used in different industrial sectors such as construction and building, appliances, and material packaging (Siracusa et al, 2008; Sam et al, 2016; Abdullah et al, 2017). Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is a synthetic water-soluble biopolymer, which possesses good mechanical and thermal properties as well as good transparency and resistance to oxygen permeation It has low degradation rates in some environments such as in soil along with relatively high cost and poor water resistance owing to the presence of hydroxyl groups in repeating units of PVA (Gupta et al, 2013; Gaaz et al, 2015; Lim et al, 2015; Aslam et al, 2018). Many hydroxyl groups in Plasticized PVA/ST blends yield weak water resistance To overcome this drawback, it is essential to reinforce such blends with applicable nanofillers to improve mechanical and thermal properties and their barrier properties (Mensitieri et al, 2011; Wang et al, 2015). (Guimarães et al, 2015) found that the Wa and WVP of plasticized PVA/ST/bamboo nanofibril nanocomposite films were decreased by 30 and 20%, respectively, at the nanofiller content of 6.50 wt% when compared with those of plasticized PVA/ST blend films alone
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