New Nanobiocomposites design from starch and zeolite for food packaging

For a long time polymers have supplied most of common packaging materials because they present several desired features like softness, lightness and transparency. However, increased use of synthetic packaging films has led to serious ecological problems due to their total non-biodegradability. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of biodegradable polymers for packaging materials in order to reduce the environmental pollution caused by plastic wastes. In this study, we prepared well-dispersed starch–zeolite (GPS/Z) nanobiocomposite. The structure and morphology of the nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM and film properties such as water absorbtion, mechanical and thermal properties were also measured. It is possible to use the zeolite in the polymer matrix even in reasonable quantities without loss of mechanical properties; an important fact is that we can incorporate molecules in zeolites, due to its ion exchange capacity and controlled release to prevent contamination of products which use packaging made of GPS.

Keywords:

Starch , Zeolite , nanobiocomposite