Study of the incorporation of wood fiber to cassava, rice and potato biodegradable matrices

Abstract

The present work is based in a study starting from the behavior and characterization of films made from a 2% total solids (TS) dispersion of easy accessibility raw materials such as, cassava starch (Y), potato (P) and rice (A), combined with a protein i.e. gelatin (G) in a 50:50 ratio; adding guaiacum wood fiber of 75 and 150 µm (Ff and Fg respectively) until 1% (TS). Furthermore, glycerol was incorporated as plasticizer until 30% TS. The biodegradable films were elaborated by casting method. The films were characterized on the following parameters: thickness, water permeability and mechanical properties (Young modulus, tensile stress and elongation). It was found that the films made of AG-Ff and PG-Ff shown better barrier to the water vapor permeability with values of 2.5 and 2.4 (g. mm. KPa -1 . h -1 .m 2 ) respectively. The PG-Ff film showed, also, better mechanical properties i.e. higher Force, Young modulus and tensile stress increasing with time, with the lower elasticity; the YG-Ff and YG-Fg films reported the higher elasticity, being this parameter of interest, we will continue with this formulae to other manufacturing processes.