Abstract:
Plastic Polymers are the most popular petroleum-based material used in food packaging, due to their
low cost and functional advantages. As a result of improper waste management, these materials take
considerable time to decompose. After harvesting crops, both banana pseudo- stems and leaves are
disposed of as landfills and this leads to increase environmental pollution. Biodegradable packagings
made up of natural fibers and other environmentally friendly materials are being used to reduce this
issue. These materials are eco-friendly and decompose rapidly in ambient conditions. The purpose of
this study was to prepare a biodegradable composite film for food packaging using alkali and
bleached banana pseudo-stem fibers, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and titanium dioxide (TiO2).
Composite films were prepared using the solution casting method. In brief, NaOH was used as a
pretreatment chemical and NaOCl/ CH3COOH were used in the bleaching process where
incorporating the latter step produced pure cellulose with respect to the alkali pretreatment. The
compositional effect on the structure and properties of the resulting films were investigated and
synthesized films were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). FT-IR showed more prominent peaks for bleached cellulosic
fibers indicating pure cellulosic fibers. Furthermore, SEM analysis showed a smooth surface for
bleached composite film and a rough lignin-based surface for the pretreated composite film. Due to
the photocatalytic effect of TiO2 an enhanced antibacterial resistivity was observed in the composite
films. Biodegradability test showed biodegradation upon three days at ambient soil condition whereas
Water Vapor Permeability (WVP) test and water solubility tests showed, lowest water solubility and
WVP at 25% fiber loading. The highest tensile strength of 42.9 N/mm2 was observed for
PVA+bleached fiber (25%) +TiO2 film with effect from the increase in fibre-matrix adhesion.
Furthermore, it was observed that incorporating bleached fibers resulted in an increased tensile
strength from 4% to 6%. Banana pseudostem fibers in combination with PVA and TiO2 demonstrated
to be a potential biodegradable composite packaging film with enhanced antibacterial resistance.
Keywords: Composite; Banana fibers; Pseudostem; Packaging; PVA; TiO2
