Green Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Biodegradable Film Based on Renewable Crosslinking Approach

Petroleum-based synthetic polymers are now the best choice for food packaging because they are easy to work with and cheap to make. But these polymers don't break down naturally, which makes it hard to deal with trash after it's been thrown away. A deep need is felt about biodegradable material. Because it is abundant, renewable, and biodegradable, starch could be an ideal material for making biodegradable polymers. PVA is water soluble polymer and has excellent properties, such as being able to emulsify adhesive and film forming ability. In the present study, biodegradable film was developed from potato starch and PVA cross-linked with a bio-crosslinker. The native starch has some drawbacks like brittleness, moisture sensitivity, very less tendency to film forming and low mechanical properties. To overcome this problem, starch was cross linked with oxidised sucrose. With several aldehyde groups per molecule, oxidized sucrose is a green cross-linker that forms hemiacetals and acetals to cross-link starch molecules. Film were developed with oxidised sucrose via solution casting. The addition of 3% cross linker exhibited higher tensile and elongation when compared to the one without cross linker. The casted films were further characterized by SEM, FTIR and TGA. The developed films represent high potential alternative to existing non-biodegradable plastics particularly for packaging applications.