pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S21 - Special Symposium: Biopolymers, eco-friendly polymers and recycling
Oral Presentation
 
 

EVALUATION OF THE PROPERTIES OF CORN COB HEMICELLULOSE BASED BIODEGRADABLE FILMS OBTAINED BY EXTRUSION AND SOLVENT CASTING METHODS

Akınalan Balık Büşra (1)*, Bölükbaşı Ufuk (2), Özkan Necati (2)

(1) Yeditepe University - Istanbul - Turkey, (2) Middle East Technical University - Ankara - Turkey

The remarkable consumption and environmental concerns related to the utilization of fossil based resources have led researchers to focus on renewable raw materials. Lignocellulosic biomass, the fibrous part of plants with a complex matrix comprising different polysaccharides, mainly cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, is the most abundant, inexpensive, non-starch renewable source in the world. In the present study, hemicellulose, which was obtained from corn cobs by alkali extraction method, was used to produce biodegradable film by extrusion, followed by rolling process and also by solvent casting techniques. The morphological, mechanical and thermal properties were investigated within these two techniques while the thickness of films were comparable. The effect of extrusion temperature (75, 90˚C) and screw speed (50, 100 RPM) on film properties were also investigated. Homogenous and crack free films were obtained by extrusion for all conditions. Discontinuous film formation was observed by solvent casted method even they were observed as homogenous and crack free via scanning electron microscopy. The onsets of thermal degradation temperature for solvent casted and extruded films were determined via thermal gravimetric analysis as 300°C. Increasing the extrusion temperature had a slightly positive effect on the mechanical properties of films, whereas screw speed did not have a noticeable effect (p>0.05). Extruded films exhibited higher mechanical performance than solvent casted film did. While the extruded films had a toughness of 13 MJ/m3, the solvent casted films had 5 MJ/m3, as well as the extruded and solvent casted films gave elongation at break values of 28% and 11% respectively.