Abstract
The focuses of this study were to investigate the effect of sodium montmorillonite clay (MMT-Na) content on the physical properties and extent of enzymatic hydrolysis Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA): Starch (S): Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) nanocomposites using enzyme <alpha>−amylase. The results of this work have revealed that films with MMT-Na content at 5 wt% exhibited a significantly reduced rate and extent of starch hydrolysis. The results suggest that this may have been attributed to interactions between PVA:S:CMC and MMT-Na that further prevented enzymatic attack on the remaining starch phases within the blend. The total solids that remained after 4320 min were 65.46 wt% (PVA:S:CMC); 67.91 wt% (PVA:S:CMC:1% MMT-Na); 78.43 wt% (PVA:S:CMC:3% MMT-Na); 80.24 wt% (PVA:S:CMC:5% MMT-Na). The rate of glucose production from each nanocomposite substrates were decresed significantly as the MMT-Na percentage increased from 0 to 5% (W/W). At the level of 5% (W/W) MMT-Na, the films showed the lowest rate of glucose production values (18.95 μg/ml h). With the increase of the MMT concentration from 0 to 5%, the UTS increased 5 from 18.36 to 20.38 MPa, however, the strain to break (SB) decreased noticeably from 35.56 to 5.22%.
Highlights
The severe environmental problems, including the increasing difficulties of waste disposal and the deepening threat of global warming caused by the nonbiodegradablility of a number of polymers have raised concerns all over the world
An increase in the Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) was observed when 1- 5% (w/w) of MMT was added to the Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA)/S/Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC)
The present work shows the role of MMT in physical properties and biodegradation of bionanocomposites
Summary
The severe environmental problems, including the increasing difficulties of waste disposal and the deepening threat of global warming (due to carbon dioxide release during incineration) caused by the nonbiodegradablility of a number of polymers (used in packaging and agriculture field) have raised concerns all over the world. Most of the researches are focused on substitution of the petrobased plastics by biodegradable materials with similar properties and low in cost (Mali et al 2005; Mariniello et al 2007; Larotonda et al 2005). Blends of starch with synthetic polymers (e.g. polyvinyl alcohol, aliphatic polyesters, etc.) are prepared to achieve the desired performance for different applications In such blends, the starch particles act as a promoter for plastic matrix biodegradation in applications such as drug delivery systems, hydrogels, bone cements and bone replacement or fixation devices (Hayashi 1994; Pereira et al 1998; Teramoto et al 2005; Sandhu et al 2005; Taghizadeh and Mehrdad 2003). PVA is a versatile polymer with many industrial applications, and it may be the only synthesized polymer whose backbone is mainly composed of C-C bonds that is biodegradable
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