Morphological and thermal properties of photodegradable biocomposite films (original) (raw)

Biocomposites containing UV absorbing inorganic nanofillers are of great interest in food packaging applications. The biodegradable polylactide (PLA) composite films were prepared by solvent casting method by incorporating 1 wt % of TiO 2 and Ag-TiO 2 nanoparticles to impart the photodegradable properties. The films were exposed to UV irradiation for different time periods and morphology of the composite films before and after UV exposure were investigated. The results showed that homogenous filler distribution was achieved in the case of Ag-TiO 2 nanoparticles. The thermal properties and thermo-mechanical stability of the composite film containing Ag-TiO 2 were found to be much higher than those of neat PLA and PLA/TiO 2 composite films. The scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the photodegradability of PLA matrix was significantly improved in the presence of Ag-TiO 2 nanoparticles.