Advancement of Mechanical & Thermal properties of Starch Films Reinforced with Micro cellulose Fibres

The use of starch as food packaging material has drawn increased attention due to its biodegradability, availability and cost effective . In order to improve the limitations of starch films in terms of mechanical and thermal resistance by this research. Take 3 grams of dried cellulose pulp were mixed with 100mL of 7%NaOH and 12% urea solution , stirred at 800RPM for 30 minutes,and then frozen at -18*C for 16 hours . After thawing,the mixture was stirred, diluted with 1000mL deionized water, and centrifuged at 1008xg for 10 minutes .The residue was washed 6-7 times with deionized water and then subjected to ultrasonication for 5 minutes at 75% amplitude . The obtained MCF was characterized by FTIR and FESEM, and the size was in the range of 2 to 15 µm in diameter and 150 µm to hundreds of micrometers in length. The effect of the MCF addition on mechanical and thermal properties of starch films was investigated using universal testing machine and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. Due to similar polysaccharide structures and good interfacial interactions, the tensile strength (TS) and the elongation at break (EAB) of the films increased with the addition of MCF, but only at 1 wt% loading content. Meanwhile, there was no significant improvement in the degradation temperature of the composite films, due to the presence of hemicellulose compounds that interrupted the crystallinity of the MCF. The results indicated that the MCF has the potential to be utilized as reinforcement in bio-based polymers for food packaging applications.