Characterisation of nanocelluloses from banana pseudo-stem as biomaterial in biodegradable food packaging

International Conference and Exhibition on Biopolymers & Bioplastics

August 10-12, 2015 San Francisco, USA

RH Fitri Faradilla, George Lee, JayashreeArcot and Martina Stenzel

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Material Sci Eng

Abstract :

Banana pseudo-stem is one of the promising sources of nanocelluloses for biodegradable food packaging. This banana pseudostem
is the largest part of a banana plant and it is considered as an agricultural waste since farmers cut it down when they
harvest the fruits. In this research, nanocelluloses from banana pseudo-stem were extracted and characterised for further
application as a biodegradable food packaging material. Nanocelluloses were extracted through chemical reactions, which included
bleaching and oxidation reactions, and mechanical disintegrations. The properties of nanocelluloses from inner and outer layers
of banana pseudo-stem and from single and double bleaching were characterised and compared. Celluloses from outer layer had
slightly higher crystallinity index (CI) than the inner layer, which was approximately 36.5% for inner and 43.9% for outer parts.
Extraction of nanocelluloses increased the CI by almost twice and double bleachednanocelluloses had CI slightly higher than single
bleachednanocelluloses. Increase in crystalline proportion of the nanocelluloses was also observed from the endotherm peak from
differential scanning calorimetry. Water flow temperatures of nanocelluloses were lower than the raw pseudo-stem flour. From the
thermo gravimetric analysis, nanocellulosesseemed to degrade at around 224oC, while the raw banana pseudo-stem degraded at
232oC for inner and 261oC for outer part. This low degradation temperature was expected since the nanocelluloses had diameter
much smaller (6-27 nm) than the raw banana pseudo stem flour (>50 μm).