Impact of production methods on properties of natural rosin added polylactic acid/sodium pentaborate and polylactic acid/calcium carbonate films

Abstract

Nowadays biopolymers play an important role in packaging materials due to their protection properties against physical and chemical degradation or mechanical resistance. In this study, sodium pentaborate anhydride (B5NaO8), eggshell (CaCO3) nanoparticles, and natural rosin additives were introduced to pure PLA to produce a biofilm protecting from UV rays. The impact of the preparation method of hybrid biocomposite films was carried out based on the polymer casting method and using in the first case only magnetic mixing whereas magnetic mixing coupled with ultrasonic homogenizer was used in the second case. All biocomposite films were obtained for a nanoparticle content fixed at 7.5 wt% and various rosin rates (1, 5, 10, and 40 wt%). This study aims to expand the UV protection zone in PLA films. The thermal and mechanical properties, transmittance of UV–visible rays, microstructure analysis, and contact angle values were evaluated to detect the effect of the preparation method on the final properties. The results showed that the homogeneous distribution of the particles was more effective using an ultrasonic homogenizer. The increase of the rosin amount exhibited a reduction of the UV–visible light transmittance and the wettability was observed, demonstrating a potential use of these films in packaging.