Consequent to the recent global interest in biodegradable packaging in food and allied industries, this study investigated effect of blend ratio of the hybrid polysaccharide of corn starch and red seaweed on the properties of the developed film. The properties investigated include physical properties (thickness and water vapour permeability), mechanical properties (tensile strength, elongation and modulus) and optical properties while the complementary properties such as scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to analyse possible chemical interactions within the films. Films manufactured with 100% corn starch (CS) exhibited the lowest quality while the films developed from seaweed (SE) blend exhibited higher quality. Based on complementary analysis result, there was an excellent blend of the filler and the polysaccharide matrix. The overall film properties improved with the increase of the blend ratio. The results of the Young's modulus (YM) complemented the results obtained for the tensile strength (TS) and the percentage elongation (E). The solubility value of the composite films justifies them as good candidate for the food packaging applications.
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