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Published on: May 22, 2014
Enhanced mechanical strength of vortex fluidic mediated biomass-based biodegradable films composed from agar,
Shan He1, Yixiao Wu2, Yang Zhang3
1School of Food and Pharmacy, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan City, China; College of Engineering, IT & Environment, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, NT, Australia; Flinders Institute for Nanoscale and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia; College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia.
Abstract:
Biodegradable, biomass derived kombucha cellulose films with increased mechanical strength from 9.98 MPa to 18.18 MPa were prepared by vortex fluidic device (VFD) processing. VFD processing not only reduced the particle size of kombucha cellulose from approximate 2 μm to 1 μm, but also reshaped its structure from irregular to round. The increased mechanical strength of these polysaccharide-derived films is the result of intensive micromixing and high shear stress of a liquid thin film in a VFD. This arises from the incorporation at the micro-structural level of uniform, unidirectional strings of kombucha cellulose hydrolysates, which resulted from the topological fluid flow in the VFD. The biodegradability of the VFD generated polymer films was not compromised relative to traditionally generated films. Both films were biodegraded within 5 days.

