Abstract
Abstract The focus of this work is to study the effect of sodium montmorillonite (MMT-Na) clay content on the rate and extent of enzymatic hydrolysis polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/starch (S)/carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) blends using enzyme cellulase. The rate of glucose production from each nanocomposite substrates was most rapid for the substrate without MMT-Na and decreased with the addition of MMT-Na for PVA/S/CMC blend (51.5 μg/ml h), PVA/S/CMC/1% MMT (45.4 μg/ml h), PVA/S/CMC/3% MMT (42.8 μg/ml h), and PVA/S/CMC/5% MMT (39.2 μg/ml h). The results of this study have revealed that films with MMT-Na content at 5 wt.% exhibited a significantly reduced rate and extent of hydrolysis. Enzymatic degradation behavior of MMT-Na containing nanocomposites of PVA/S/CMC was based on the determinations of weight loss and the reducing sugars. The degraded residues have been characterized by various analytical techniques, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electronic microscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy.
Highlights
Non-degradable plastics have brought about a lot of concerns due to their polluting effects on the environment
The present study shows the role of cellulase in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/S/carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)/MMT-Na degradation
One may observe that the films are considerably destroyed, during degradation a much more stable fibrillar fraction is revealed. This present study reports the role of cellulase enzyme in the degradation of nanocomposites
Summary
Non-degradable plastics have brought about a lot of concerns due to their polluting effects on the environment. Carboxymethyl cellulose can be used as filler due to its polymeric structure and high molecular weight It is capable of improving mechanical and barrier features of films based on starch [15]. In comparison to traditional composites, nanocomposites that resulted from adding a low amount of clay to polymers led to improvement in the properties such as barrier, thermal, and oxidative. Bastioli et al reported that the biodegradation of an amylose-PVA composite (PVA-starch blend) was very slow and that in a degradation test with activated sludge, 75% weight loss required 300 days. These two polymers can be an excellent pair for blending duo to their biodegradable features. At moderate temperatures and pH conditions, efficient enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose could give glucose as follows [26]: ðC6H10O5Þn þ H2O Cel→lulase nC6H12O6: ð1Þ
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