A lginate is naturally found in the structure of brown microalgae and composed of D-mannuronate and L-guluronate monomers [1, 2, 3]. It is water-soluble and biodegradable polysaccharide that has film-forming ability thus can be utilized in bio-based film formulations for food packing applications [1, 4, 5]. By having a hydrophilic matrix, alginate has a poor resistance to water vapour, therefore either cross linking with the polyvalent ions or reinforcement with cellulosic fibres for improving the water barrier and mechanical properties is recommended in the literature [1, 2, 6, 7, 8]. Nanocellulose addition to the Na-alginate based films at 5% rate improved the WVP and the tensile strength was also increased at the same nanocellulose enrichment level [9]. However, the cellulose fibres and cellulose nanowhiskers that were extracted from mulberry pulp addition to Na-alginate based films had different impact on mechanical and water barrier properties [8]. The cellulose nanowhiskers at each reinforcement level had higher tensile strength and elastic modulus compared to the control film, while the cellulose fibre addition had a negative effects on these mechanical parameters. Both of these cellulosic sources did not impro-Article History:
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