ABSTRACT:In recent years, the development of ecofriendly biodegradable packaging materials from natural polymers particularly agricultural products has received increasing attention in an attempt to substitute the existing nonbiodegradable petro-based polymers. The need for new polymeric materials with tailored properties has driven the interest of industry and academia toward polymer blends. Vegetable oils are known to possess varying amounts of triglycerides having different unsaturation in their chains. Blending of commercial polymers with vegetable oil derived polymers is, therefore, expected to show synergetic behavior in terms of compatibility, physical, and mechanical characteristics with the latter. In an attempt to develop a biodegradable packaging material, blends of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and castor oil epoxy (COE) were synthesized in the weight ratios of 70/30, 60/40, 50/50, 40/60, and
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