New method of producing nanominerals from office paper waste and investigating their microstructural properties

This study presents a new method for the production of nanomaterials from office paper waste. For this purpose, two types of office paper wastes were selected to extract kaolin and then metakaolin was produced after calcination at five different temperatures in the range of 500 to 1000 degrees C. The synthesized materials were investigated by differential thermal analysis/thermo-gravimetric analysis (DTA/TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Planetary ball mill was used for mechanical treatment of nanomaterials, followed by analyzing using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The changes in the crystalline structure of the nanoparticles were also investigated. The synthesized nanominerals were also used in a nanobiocomposite, i.e., soy protein isolate (SPI) biofilm, to improve its barrier properties.