Effect of Sugar, Urea, and Molasses and the Influence of Radiation on the Plasticization of Acacia catechu Extract Incorporated Starch/Poly-(Vinyl Alcohol) Based Film

Acacia catechu extract was incorporated in the starch/PVA (60% : 40%) based films (0% to 15%) to the total weight of starch/PVA based film. The tensile strength (TS) of the starch/PVA blend film was 24 MPa whereas the acacia incorporated film shows the highest tensile strength (TS) of 33.8 MPa at 0.5%. Again, 0.5% acacia based film was treated with 10% urea, sugar, and molasses separately both at nonirradiated and irradiated conditions. At the nonirradiated condition molasses incorporated film gives the best results (TS 16 MPa, EB 59%), while sugar incorporated film shows a value of 10 MPa TS and EB of 123% at 200 krad. The films were investigated by FTIR. Thermal studies were carried out by TG/DTA. Water absorption experiment showed a different uptake of water by the different films. Soil degradation test revealed that after 70 days molasses incorporated film (both irradiated and nonirradiated) degrades to 100% into the soil.