Table 1.
Characterization of agro-industrial residues.
Fig 1.
FTIR spectra of (A) commercial PHB (Sigma-Aldrich Corp.) and (B) pure PHBA-04 produced from Cupriavidus necator strain A-04 (B).
Table 2.
Thermal analysis by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for commercialized PHB, produced PHBA-04 and produced PHB/esterified PALF-MCC at the rate of 10°C/min.
Fig 2.
Schematic diagram for the preparation of esterified PALF-MCC laurate to depict the method for preparing fibres to be compatible with solvent casting PHBA-04.
Fig 3.
FTIR spectra of PALF-MCC and its esterification with fatty acid chloride.
(A) FTIR spectra of native PALF-MCC and (B) esterified PALF-MCC laurate.
Fig 4.
Comparison of solubility tests in acetone, chloroform, ethanol, tetrahydrofuran and toluene for (A) native PALF-MCC and (B) esterified PALF-MCC laurate.
Fig 5.
Appearance of (A) native PALF-MCC powder, (B) esterified PALF-MCC laurate powder, SEM micrographs of (C) native PALF-MCC and (D) esterified PALF-MCC laurate.
Fig 6.
DSC thermograms (A) of native PALF-MCC and esterified PALF-MCC laurate and TGA thermograms (B) of native PALF-MCC and esterified PALF-MCC laurate.
Fig 7.
Effect of esterified PALF-MCC laurate addition on mechanical properties: (A) Young’s modulus, (B) tensile strength and (C) % elongation at break of PHB/esterified PALF-MCC laurate films.
Fig 8.
SEM micrographs of the surface morphology of PHB/esterified PALF-MCC laurate biocomposite films.
Fig 9.
Appearance of PHB/esterified PALF-MCC laurate biocomposite films.
Fig 10.
DSC thermograms (A) of PHB/esterified PALF-MCC laurate biocomposite films and TGA thermograms (B) of PHB/esterified PALF-MCC laurate biocomposite films.
Fig 11.
Degradation time courses in laboratory-scale fertilized soil conditions in soil burial test for 77 days (A) % weight loss PHB/esterified PALF-MCC laurate biocomposite films and (B) SEM micrographs of surface morphology of PHB/esterified PALF-MCC laurate biocomposite films before and after 63 days.
Table 3.
The comparative data of degradation rates of PHB/esterified PALF-MCC laurate biocomposite films with esterified PALF-MCC laurate contents of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 100% (w/w).