Synthesizing High‑Strength Biodegradable Polymer Film from Ethiopian False Banana Pseudo‑Stem Using POSS and Chitosan as a Filler

Abstract

Ethiopian false banana, locally known as “enset”, is an indigenous vegetable tree native to southern Ethiopia and mainly uti lized as a food source. In this study, we investigated the possibility of using cellulose extracted from Ethiopian false bananas for bioplastic production and its application for food packaging. Ethiopian false bananas contain around 67.63% of cellulose in a dry weight base. Cellulose was extracted by a combination of alkaline treatment by 1 M NaOH and bleaching by H2O2 and the flm was produced by solution casting method. To improve the strength of the flms, POSS and chitosan are added in diferent amounts (10, 25. 35, 50, 75%) and glycerol is used as a plasticizer. The efect of the fllers on the mechanical properties, morphological structure, biodegradability, and thermal stability was investigated. The increase of the fller (POSS and chitosan) content led to an increase in the flm’s tensile strength and thermal stability. However, when the content of POSS and chitosan was increased to 75%, the tensile strength decreased. The tensile strength of flms containing cellulose and POSS was 25.9–36.801 Mpa, and CCHs flms containing cellulose and chitosan was 22.7–34.45Mpa. Cellulose flms which have POSS as fller show improved tensile strength than the flm having chitosan. However, the addition of glycerol slightly lowers the tensile strength of the flms (13.911–21.699 Mpa) but fexibility is improved, as indicated by a signifcant increase in percent elongation (13.127–25.2%).