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. 1. Introduction Polysaccharides such as starch and dextrin are typical examples of natural biodegradable hydrophilic polymers with relatively good biocompatibility [1]. It has been known since the 1970s that starch is renewable and biodegradable [2]. Starch has been incorporated into synthesized polymer matrix, and in the past decades several efforts have been made to convert starch into a thermoplastic material [3–9]. As polysaccharides dissolve easily in water, they do not present mechanical and shape stabilities in fluids. An effective method for overcoming this issue is to blend them with synthesized polymer gel networks in order to form natural and synthesized polymer blend. Among the existing synthesized polymers, PVA possesses many useful properties, such as excellent chemical resistance, optical and physical properties [10], good film-forming capability, water solubility [11], and an excellent biocompatibility [12, 13]. PVA is the most readily biodegradable material of vinyl polymers. It is readily degraded in wastewater-activated sludge. The microbial degradation of PVA has been studied [14–16]. The strength, flexibility, and water resistance of starch productions improved when PVA aqueous solution was added [17]. Furthermore, the polarity of PVA has been found to help the blend in accelerating the hydrolytic attack by the atmospheric moisture, thus resulting in the degradation of the sugar molecules in natural polymers [18]. Some effective means commonly used to modify the PVA/starch composites in order to improve their mechanical and water resistance properties include (a) chemically modifying PVA or starch [19], for
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