Ecofriendly quince peel powder incorporated Polylactic acid biocomposite film

Abstract

This study aims to develop sustainable, renewable and biodegradable biocomposite films from environmentally friendly materials. For this purpose, completely biodegradable polymer composites were prepared by mixing polylactic acid (PLA) with a new source, quince peel (QP), by solvent casting method, and their structural, mechanical and thermal properties were examined. The tensile strengths of the composites prepared using QP in proportions varying between 5% (P5Q) and 30% (P30Q) by weight vary between 21.13 ± 0.80 and 12.01 ± 0.10 MPa, and their elongations at break vary between 11.33 ± 0.38 and 4.08 ± 1.06 %. As the QP contribution increased, the tensile strength and breaking elongation of these composites generally decreased, while the elastic modulus also increased. Among these composites, whose elastic modulus varies between 1040.00 ± 140.01 and 811.33 ± 13.31 MPa, it was determined that the elastic modulus (1040.00 ± 140.01 MPa) of the 20% QP added composite (P20Q) was higher than the others. When the thermal analysis of PLA/QP films were examined, it was observed that the glass transition temperatures (Tg) were between 58.54 and 51.45°C and the melting temperatures (Tm) were between 167.71 and 164.28°C, and these temperatures generally decreased with increasing QP doping. When the T50 values, which represent the temperature at which 50% of the composite materials decompose, were examined, it was found that the QP-added ones were higher than the pure composites. While this value was 317.96°C in pure PLA composite, T50 values varied between 327.92 and 340.80°C depending on the varying QP ratios. According to the XRD results performed to evaluate the crystalline properties of PLA composites containing quince bark, the crystallinity of pure PLA was determined as 19.5% and the crystallinity of composites containing 5, 10, 20 and 30 wt % QP additives was determined as 19.3, 18.3, 16.4 and 14.6%, respectively.