Water Transport Properties of Bio-Nanocomposites Reinforced by Sugar Palm (Arenga Pinnata) Nanofibrillated Cellulose

Rushdan Ahmad Ilyas; Salit Mohd Sapuan; Mohamad Ridzwan Ishak; Edi Syams Zainudin

Authors

Rushdan Ahmad Ilyas Laboratory of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Salit Mohd Sapuan Laboratory of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Mohamad Ridzwan Ishak Department of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Edi Syams Zainudin Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 432400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Keywords:

Sugar Palm, Nanofibrillated Cellulose, Nanocomposites, Water Absorption, Water Solubility

Abstract

In present work, sugar palm nanofibrillated cellulose (SPNFCs) nanocomposites were casted and utilized as biodegradable reinforcement materials to improve the water barrier properties of the sugar palm starch (SPS)-based films. SPNFCs with three different sizes based on cycling time (5, 10 and 15 cycles denoted as SPS/SPNFCs-5C, SPS/SPNFCs-10C, and SPS/SPNFCs-15C) were incorporated into SPS plasticizers together with glycerol and sorbitol using solution casting method. Then, the SPS and SPS/SPNFCs bionanocomposites were submitted for water absorption and solubility test. Adding of 0.5 wt. % SPNFCs-15C loading had significantly improved water absorption and water solubility properties of the nanocomposite films by 18.84% and 39.38%, respectively, compared with the neat film. This was ascribed by the high compatibility between SPNFCs and SPS matrices, which was supported under the observation of the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).