Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research (ISSN : 0975-7384)

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Original Articles: 2016 Vol: 8 Issue: 5

Properties of beechwood xylan films reinforced with bamboo (Bambusa blumeana J.A. & J.H. Schultes) cellulose nanowhiskers

Abstract

The objective of the study was to prepare films made from Beechwood xylan reinforced with varying amounts of cellulose nanowhiskers extracted from a Philippine-grown bamboo species (Bambusa blumeana J.A. & J.H. Schultes). The effect of varying the concentration of bamboo cellulosic nanowhiskers on various properties of the xylan film, such as grammage, bulk density, thickness, rupture strength, water vapor transmission rate and smoothness of the film surface was determined. The morphology of the nanocomposite films was evaluated via Atomic Force Microscopy which showed increasing film surface roughness at higher cellulosic nanowhisker loading.Varying the concentration of the nanowhiskers does not have a significant effect on the grammage, bulk density and thickness of the resulting films. However, the rupture strength of the films increased significantly with increasing nanowhisker content. The highest rupture strength (23,121.23 Pa) was obtained in the film with 10% nanowhiskers. Furthermore, the water vapor transmission rate of the films decreased significantly with increasing nanowhiskers content, although the lowest recorded value of 0.9594 g-mil/m2-day was obtained for the filmwith 5% nanowhiskers reinforcement. Thus, small addition of bamboo nanowhiskers in the fabrication of xylan film can significantly improveproperties desirable in materials to be used for packaging.