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2011-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
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Editors: | Florian K |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2012 |
Pages: | 646 pages |
ISBN: | 978-0-9879917-4-4 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
Environment needs biodegradability of materials. Much effort had recently been made to develop environment-friendly biodegradable materials because of the worldwide environment and resources resulted from petroleum-derived plastics. Traditional plastic artifacts produced from synthetic polymers are known for their inertness to the immediate attack by microorganisms. Although this characteristic is associated with their multipurpose applications, increasing environmental concerns have arisen from the disposal of plastics in nature. As a response, the development of biodegradable materials that could substitute synthetic polymers, at least in some of their applications, has been encouraged. In our laboratory, we made an approach to fabricate natural polymer based thin film alternative to conventional packaging material. We used starch, chitosan, gelatin and catechu to prepare thin film by blending technique. Mechanical and water uptake of the film were investigated. Physical (gamma and UV radiation) and chemical (various monomers) methods were applied to increase the film properties. It was found that both physical and chemical methods had a significant effect on the film properties up to a certain limit. The highest tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (Eb) of chitosan film were found to be 31Mpa and 71.25%, respectively, at 20th UV pass for 1 min soaking in 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) monomer. The highest TS and Eb were found to be 22.4 MPa and 19.5%, respectively, at 2 min soaking in vinyltrimethoxy silane monomer under 15th pass of UV radiation for 2:1 starch/catechu film. Gelatin films also showed the same trend. The objective of this work is to modify polymeric thin film derived from renewable resources to achieve the processing, gas barrier, water resistance, biodegradation, and mechanical properties required to enable the wider use of these materials in packaging applications.