Effect of crosslinking monomers on the physico-mechanical and degradation properties of photografted chitosan film

Chitosan was extracted from the dried prawn shell waste through the intermediate product chitin. Thin films of chitosan were prepared by casting and its mechanical properties like tensile strength, elongation at break were studied. The chitosan films were photocured with two types of monomers such as 5% ethylene glycol (EG) and 5% ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) to increase the physico-mechanical properties. Five percent of monomer solution were prepared in MeOH along with 2% photoinitiator; Irgacure-651. Soaking time and UV-radiation intensities were optimized with extent of polymer loading (PL) and mechanical properties such as tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (Eb) of the cured films. Comparing the properties of EG and EGDMA treated chitosan film, EG showed the best performance. The EG-cured chitosan film with 20 min soaking time showed the highest tensile strength 49.6 MPa and elongation at break 37.2%. The treated films were investigated by FT-IR. The water uptake was determined for raw film 1781%, EG grafted chitosan film 64.4% and EGDMA grafted film 167%. The degradation properties in water, soil and simulated weathering condition were determined for the raw and cured chitosan films. It was observed that the raw film degrades more than that of the treated films.