| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4512547 | Industrial Crops and Products | 2016 | 11 Pages |
•Kachkal peel an agrowaste is profusely available in Assam but currently adds no value.•Rich source of CNF for developing CNP that can be used in better way in biocomposites.•Developed CNP had high crystallinity, thermal, mechanical and electrical stability.•Crystallite size was 2.53–3.09 nm as observed in XRD with partial formation of nanotubes.•Next generation renewable reinforcement agent to be used in food packaging industries.
Cellulose nanopaper (CNP) from underutilized agro-waste of culinary banana (Musa ABB) peel was developed using chemical treatment combined with high-intensity ultrasonication. TEM images confirmed presence of thinner and finer webs of cellulose nanofiber (CNF) with average diameter of 43.8 and 10.3 nm in CNP-UT and CNP-T, respectively. The individual crystallite size in the range of 2.53–3.09 nm and crystallinity index (Ic) of 37.16% in CNP-UT and 68.45% in CNP-T was observed in XRD. The high purity of cellulose in developed CNP was supported by FT-IR and 13C NMR of cellulose I. The thermal depolymerization of hemicelluloses is attributed by the weight loss in the region of 226–348 °C (CNP-UT) and 239–366 °C (CNP-T) and the onset temperature (Tonset) was recorded in the range of ∼226 °C to ∼239 °C. DTG curve with only one main peak appeared at 311 °C for CNP-UT and shifted to 329 °C in case of CNP-T. The light emission was in the range of 500–650 nm and emission peak was observed at ∼614 nm in both CNP-UT and CNP-T. The tensile strength of CNP-T was higher (1.51 kN/m2) than CNP-T (0.73 kN/m2). Tensile energy absorption was recorded 2.37 for CNP-UT and 9.00 J/m2 in case of CNP-T. The maximum compression force was found to be 755.06 kNm/kg and 376.13 kNm/kg for CNP-T and CNP-UT, respectively. The values of strain at break were recorded 1.52% for CNP-UT and 1.10% for CNP-T and the tensile stiffness index for CNP-UT and CNP-T was 1.69 and 6.79 MNm/kg, respectively. The diameter (43.8 nm) and length (1389.6 nm) of CNF in CNP-UT revealed less aspect ratio (31.7) compared to CNP-T (51.9) which is made up of smaller diameter (10.3 nm) and length (536.1 nm). The zeta potential of CNP-UT and CNP-T was −2.6 mV and 5.4 mV, respectively. The developed CNP exhibited high crystallinity, thermal, mechanical and electrical stability, and has credible evidence for the production of biocomposites and may be considered as one of the potent renewable reinforcement agents for using in the field of food packaging industries.
