Investigating the characteristics of carboxymethyl cellulose film as a possible material for green packaging

Abstract

The primary objective of the current work was to create a value-added biodegradable product for sustainable packaging. The primary goal of using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) made from agricultural waste is to lower the cost of making the film, because currently available commercial CMS is expensive. The main aim of the research is to convert the CMC obtained from agricultural waste into a usable biodegradable polymer that can be used as packaging material. Investigations were done into how well hemicellulose-based carboxymethyl cellulose (H-CMC) films performed. Oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) were used to extract hemicellulose using an alkali-ethanol extraction method. Following that, distilled water was added to the newly generated hemicellulose, and it was embedded with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) at various hemicellulose loadings (30, 50, 70, and 90 wt%). H- CMC films were made using the solution casting technique, and they ranged in thickness from 0.07 to 0.12 mm. The tensile test, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and SEM analysis were used to characterize the produced films. The hemicellulose content of H-CMC films has raised the glass transition temperature (Tg). The optimal loading of hemicellulose into CMC as a possible material for green packaging applications, according to the overall results, can be determined to be 70 percent weight. By integrating functional elements for upcoming applications including electrically conductive and photocatalytic thin films, the research further attempted to develop the film structure.