Composite Films Based on Polymeric Matrices And Cellulose Fibers

M. PEREDA; ILONA RÁCZ; N. E. MARCOVICH

Budapest, Hungría

Conferencia; 14th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE on composite materials; 2010

At present, cellulose-containing disperse systems, especially microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), are widely used in different industrial fields, such as pharmacy, perfumery, processing of food and plastics, etc. Moreover, it has been established that, when used as fillers in polymeric composites, they improve the physical and mechanical properties if excellent dispersion and good compatibility are achieved. The goal of this work is to produce and characterize fully biodegradable composite films using sodium caseinate as polymeric matrix and microcrystalline cellulose as reinforcement. As reference material, PVC is also used as the non-degradable counterpart. The intended use of material is packaging, especially in the food industry. The MCC was swelled and partly separated to whiskers by chemical and sonication treatments in order to improve its dispersion in the polymeric matrices. Composite films with up to 2 % wt. filler are prepared with “as received” and treated MCC. The thermal and mechanical behavior of reinforced samples is evaluated and analyzed. Preliminary results indicate that a strong filler-matrix interaction was developed in both cases due to the good compatibility of the filler with both polar matrices. Besides, increasing concentrations of MCC leads, in general, to stiffer but less deformable films.