Preparation and properties of wheat gluten based bioplastics with fish scale

The objective of this study was to prepare the wheat gluten based bioplastics with fish scale (FS) through compression molding. The tensile strength of the wheat gluten/FS composites (the range of 6.5-7.5 MPa) was higher than that of the neat wheat gluten-based bioplastic (3.40 MPa). There was a good dispersion of the fish scale powder embedded within the wheat gluten matrix. Dynamic mechanical analysis results showed that the tan delta max peak height and storage modulus of the wheat gluten-based bioplasic was reduced by adding the fish scale. Moreover, the addition of the fish scale caused a weight loss and the surface of the wheat gluten based bioplastic after 120 h of accelerated weathering were differed from the neat wheat gluten based bioplastic. These results may help to find a new applications for fish scale waste to control the degradation rate of a wheat gluten based bioplastic in the agricultural field.