Chemical and Mechanical Properties of Films Made of Cellulose Nanoplatelets and Cellulose Fibers Obtained from Banana Pseudostem

Biopolymers arise as a good substitute for synthetic polymers, regardless of the energy demand and the complex processes required to isolate such biopolymers. Cellulose is an organic polymer that can be found in all terrestrial plants and is the most abundant organic biomolecule on the Earth. However, the mechanical properties of most biopolymers are not as good as the ones of synthetic polymers under environmental conditions, because they are highly hydrophilic. In this work, we aimed to extract cellulose nanoplatelets (CNP) and cellulose fibers (CF) from the banana pseudostem through one step of alkalinization followed by acid hydrolysis, to obtain a self-standing transparent film. The obtained all-cellulose material (CF/CNP) was characterized by Optic Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Attenuates Total Reflection Spectroscopy, X-Ray diffraction. Also, CF/CNP films were made in order to test their tensile and strength properties, along with the simulated biodegradability using enzymatic hydrolysis. [GRAPHICS] .