Sugar palm nanocrystalline cellulose reinforced sugar palm starch composite: Degradation and water-barrier properties

In this work, sugar palm nanocrystalline cellulose (SPNCCs) nanocomposites were prepared and used as a biodegradable reinforcement material to improve the water vapor barrier properties of the sugar palm starch (SPS)-based films. SPNCCs with different size based on hydrolysis time (30, 45 and 60 minutes denoted as SPS/SPNCCs-30, SPS/SPNCCs-45, and SPS/SPNCCs-60) were incorporated into SPS plasticizes with glycerol and sorbitol using solution casting method. Then the SPS and SPS/SPNCCs bionanocomposites were submitted to biodegradation by means of soil burial experiment and water vapor barrier test. The biodegradation test shows that SPS degrades very quickly than SPS/SPNCCs which lose 61.93% of its weight at the end of 7 days compared to the SPS/SPNCCs-60 bionanocomposite 52.61%. Adding 0.5 wt.% SPNCCs-60 loading significantly improve water vapor permeability (WVP) of the nanocomposite film by 19.94% compared with the neat film. This was ascribed to the high compatibility between SPNCCs and SPS matrices, which was supported by the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).