Abstract
Abstract The disposal of non-biodegradable synthetic plastic wastes is linked with air, land, and marine pollutions. Incineration of plastic wastes released toxic substances into the air while recycled plastics end up accumulated in landfill and dumped into the ocean. In this study, novel sugar palm starch reinforced with sugar palm crystalline nanocellulose was blended with poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with various formulations to develop alternative materials potentially substituting conventional plastics. X-ray diffraction analysis demonstrated broad amorphous scattering background with minor diffraction peaks at 2θ of 19.4° and 22° associated with VH-type and B-type crystal structure for all blend bionanocomposites samples. Higher solubility rates were observed for PLA20TPS80 (96.34%) and PLA40TPS60 (77.66%) associated with higher concentration of plasticizers providing extra space in the polymer chains to be penetrated by water molecules. Increasing PLA content was not necessarily enhancing the water vapor permeability rate. Dynamic mechanical analysis presented a significant increment in storage modulus (E′) for PLA60TPS40 (53.2%) compared to the trivial changes of PLA70TPS30 (10%) and PLA80TPS20 (0.6%). However, significant improvement in impact strength occurred only at PLA40TPS60 (33.13%), and further addition showed minor improvement between 12 and 20%. Overall, it is noted that PLA60TPS40 demonstrated adequate functional properties to be used in food packaging application.
Highlights
Today, petroleum-based plastics are vastly used in various industries such as packaging, construction, medical, textile, and automotive industries [1,2,3]
The sugar palm crystalline nanocellulose (SPCNC) reinforcement is associated with diffraction peak at 2θ of 22° and its lower intensity is linked to the low concentration of SPCNC used in this study [6]
X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis results showed large amorphous scattering background indicating an amorphous structure for all blend bionanocomposite samples because of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) side groups obstructing hydrogen bond formation between starch chains causing loose packing structure
Summary
Petroleum-based plastics are vastly used in various industries such as packaging, construction, medical, textile, and automotive industries [1,2,3]. The benefits of plastics are wide ranging, massive production and improper waste management have raised environment issues. Production growth is expected to reach 500 million tons by 2050 because of the rise in global population and overall consumption [4]. Single-use plastic (SUP) including plastic bags, microbeads, cutlery, straws, polystyrene such as cups and food containers, and sachet water wrappers are the major contributors to plastic wastes as they are used once and discarded [5]. Plastics floating in the ocean often mistook as food by marine animals causing serious causalities. Recycling programs are not contributing much in plastic
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