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Morphological and thermal properties of photodegradable biocomposite films
Author(s) -
Pillai Sreejarani Kesavan,
Ray Suprakas Sinha,
Scriba Manfred,
Ojijo Vincent,
Hato Mpitloane Joseph
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.38763
Subject(s) - materials science , composite number , biocomposite , nanoparticle , scanning electron microscope , thermal stability , titanium dioxide , chemical engineering , composite material , photocatalysis , polylactic acid , casting , polymer , nanotechnology , chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering , catalysis
Biocomposites containing ultraviolet (UV) radiation absorbing inorganic nanofillers are of great interest in food packaging applications. The biodegradable polylactide (PLA) composite films were prepared by solvent casting method by incorporating 1 wt % of titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and Ag‐TiO 2 (silver nanoparticles decorated TiO 2 ) nanoparticles to impart the photodegradable properties. The films were exposed to UV radiation for different time periods and morphology of the composite films before and after UV exposure were investigated. The results showed that homogenous filler distribution was achieved in the case of Ag‐TiO 2 nanoparticles. The thermal properties and thermomechanical stability of the composite film containing Ag‐TiO 2 nanoparticles were found to be much higher than those of neat PLA and PLA/TiO 2 composite films. The scanning electron microscopy and X‐ray diffraction studies revealed that the photodegradability of PLA matrix was significantly improved in the presence of Ag‐TiO 2 nanoparticles. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013