The past few decades have seen extraordinary gain in interest for bio-based products, driven by the intensifying call of the society for petrochemical material replacement and developing materials with next-to-no environmental impact. Cellulose, which is an abundantly available "green" material, can be derived from plant fibers and tailored for a plethora of possible uses where it can be used as a substrate or as a filler material. However, emerging technologies and product advancements necessitate the search for materials that are small, biodegradable, lightweight, and strong. Nanocellulose, which can be obtained through as mechanical and chemical production methods with tensile strength and Young's modulus of up to 0.5 and 130 GPa, respectively, proves to be the answer that they were looking for. However, the inherent hydrophilic nature of nanocellulose limited its potential widespread application. Surface modifications of nanocellulose to alter and diminish its hydrophilicity were done to address the aforementioned issues. In this article, we had reviewed on different types of surface modifications and their resulting impact on the properties of nanocellulose and their effect on polymer composites. The importance of nanocellulose in emerging applications such as biosensor, nanoremediation, papermaking, and automotive as well as the current state of the industry and the commercialization progress of nanocellulose were also discussed.

The objective of this work was to study the biodegradability of polylactic acid (PLA)/paddy straw powder (PSP) biocomposites. Environmental degradation was evaluated by composting the biocomposite samples into the soil. Different techniques, including mechanical tests and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), were used to obtain a view of the degradation that occurred during the soil burial of the biocomposites. Results of the mechanical tests showed that an increasing content of PSP in the biocomposites decreased the tensile strength and elongation at break (EB), while it increased the modulus of elasticity after six months of exposure. Scanning electron microscopy on the surface after soil burial showed that the filler was poorly wetted by the matrix. This explains the reduction in tensile strength and the elongation at break after soil burial. Differential scanning calorimetry results indicated that the crystallinity of the biocomposites increased with longer composting periods.

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The effect of corn cob (CC) content and crosslinking agent on tensile, morphological, thermal properties, gel fraction and enzymatic degradation of chitosan (CS)/corn cob (CC) biocomposite films was studied. Epichlorohydrin (EP) and adipic acid (ADP) as crosslinking agents were added to improve the properties of CS/CC biocomposite films. The addition of CC decreased the tensile strength and elongation at break, but increased the modulus of elasticity of CS/CC biocomposite films. The EP-modified CS/CC exhibited higher tensile and thermal properties than ADP-modified CS/CC. The formation of crosslinkages between CS and EP or CS and ADP was proven by Fourier transform infrared studies. The modified CS/CC biocomposite films with ADP and EP, respectively, showed better interface interaction, as demonstrated in scanning microscopy electron. Furthermore, the incorporation of CC in CS increased the weight loss of enzymatic degradation of biocomposite films. Moreover, EP-modified CS/CC shows better resistance to hydrolysis in a-amylase enzymatic degradation than ADP-modified CS/CC. The gel fraction of CS/CC biocomposite films increases with the increasing CC content, whereas the gel fraction of modified CS/CC with EP is higher compared to modified CS/CC with ADP. The novelty of our research showed that the modified biocomposite films with EP have the highest tensile and thermal properties, also gel content than others biocomposite films. The biocomposite films modified with ADP confer plasticization effect compared to unmodified and other modified biocomposite films.

The positive attributes of excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability of biocomposites with the addition of versatile nanocellulose from agriculture wastes have provided plenty opportunities for further development of functional biocomposite in various fields. Therefore, solvent casting was selected as a reinforcement method in order to produce biocomposite comprise of nanocrystalline cellulose and PLA polymer. Modification of nanocrystalline cellulose through acetylation reaction was conducted upon reinforcement to reduce its surface polarity and hidrophilicity. Biocomposite films prepared at various unmodified (uNC) and acetylated nanocrytalline cellulose (aNC) loading were exposed to morphological (FESEM), tensile test and thermal analysis (TGA). Reinforcement of aNC shows a better dispersion in PLA polymer due to the decreasing of surface polarity, thus increasing inter-facial interaction between both materials. This is proven by greater performance of biocomposite films in tensile strength, Young�s modulus and thermal stability of aNC reinforced PLA as compared to uNC reinforced PLA. Overall, it can be concluded that these research findings can widen the scope of biocomposites research area and have significant implications for the commercial application of biomass products.

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