Abstract
A series of biopolymer-based nanocomposite films were prepared by incorporating natural one-dimensional (1D) palygorskite (PAL) nanorods, and two-dimensional (2D) montmorillonite (MMT) nanoplatelets into sodium alginate (SA) film by a simple solution casting method. The effect of different dimensions of nanoclays on the mechanical, water resistance, and light transmission properties of the SA/PAL or MMT nanocomposite films were studied. The field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) result showed that PAL can disperse better than MMT in the SA matrix in the case of the same addition amount. The incorporation of both PAL and MMT into the SA film can enhance the tensile strength (TS) and water resistance capability of the film. At a high content of nanoclays, the SA/PAL nanocomposite film shows relatively higher TS, and better water resistance than the SA/MMT nanocomposite film. The SA/MMT nanocomposite films have better light transmission than SA/PAL nanocomposite film at the same loading amount of nanoclays. These results demonstrated that 1D PAL nanorods are more suitable candidate of inorganic filler to improve the mechanical and water resistance properties of biopolymers/nanoclays nanocomposites.
Highlights
Over the past decades, the commodity plastics as commonly used food packaging materials have plaid very important roles in human daily production
This result indicated that sodium alginate (SA) polymer chains cannot enter the tunnel to cause the change of the crystal structure of PAL, which is in good agreement with previous reports (Peng et al, 2011; Huang et al, 2012)
When the loading amount of MMT increased to 10%, the cross-section of SA/MMT nanocomposite film becomes looser owing to the agglomeration of MMT in the SA matrix, which may have a negative impact on the performance of the composites
Summary
The commodity plastics (i.e., polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate) as commonly used food packaging materials have plaid very important roles in human daily production. The characteristic reflection of MMT has not been observed in the XRD pattern of SA/MMT when the content of MMT is 2 wt.%, indicating MMT was exfoliated after its composite with SA polymer chains at a relatively lower MMT loading amounts.
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