The Use of Starch Matrix-banana Fiber Composites for Biodegradable Maxillofacial Bone Plates

Abstract

Starch based green composites have been studied as potential materials to be used in several biomedical applications. This paper explores utilizing starch based composites reinforced with pseudostem banana fibers in fabricating biodegradable maxillofacial bone plates. Corn starch plasticized by 30 wt.% glycerin and 20 wt.% distilled water was used as a matrix. The produced thermoplastic starch (TPS) matrix is reinforced with pseudostem banana fibers at different weight fractions using hot pressing at 5 MPa and 160ºC for 30 minutes. Our experimental results showed that increasing the banana fibers weight fraction progressively improved the mechanical properties reaching a maximum at 50 wt.% fibers. The improvement in the mechanical properties of starch/banana fibers composite was attributable to the strong interaction between fibers and the starch matrix, as evidenced by a series of scanning electron micrographs of the fracture surface. Furthermore, experiments investigating thermal properties and water uptake also showed that the best results are achieved at the 50 wt.% banana fibers. The experimental results show that the starch matrix-banana fiber composites satisfy the maxillofacial bone fixation requirements.

A Review on Thermoplastic or Thermosetting Polymeric Matrices Used in Polymeric Composites Manufactured with Banana Fibers from the Pseudostem

“…Besides, the hydrophilic nature of the NF combined with the hydrophobic nature of the PM and the polar and dispersive components of the fibers' surface energy, causing the hydrophilic or hydrophobic behavior of the reinforcement, have an effect on the interface formation during manufacturing and also on the toughness of the composite under service conditions [122]. This will lead to poor MP, which limits their use as reinforcement in PCNF [19,[27][28][29]32,37,49,89,97,123,124].…”

“…At this moment, very few studies still exist in the literature that used BF from BPS as reinforcement for plasticized SM (e.g., [123,153]). Guimarães et al [153] prepared and characterized SMBPC containing both commercial and crude glycerin as plasticizer.…”

“…Guimarães et al [153] prepared and characterized SMBPC containing both commercial and crude glycerin as plasticizer. Darwish et al [123] prepared glycerol plasticized SMBPC with different weight fractions of BF for the fabrication of maxillofacial bone plates. Plasticizers can provide stability and compatibility with hydrophilic packaging chains in starches (due to the formation of hydrogen bonds with the starch), and they can reduce brittleness, making starch more flexible and avoiding the cracking of starch-based materials during handling and storage [153,161,170].…”

“…For the PC laminates case, it is recommended that the determination of TP follow the ASTM D882 [179]. For the determination of the TP of thermosetting reinforced plastics using test specimens of uniform nominal width, it is recommended to follow the ASTM D5083 standard [123].…”

“…This was achieved due to the replacement of hydroxyl groups with hydrophobic ester groups by SCT treatments and by the incorporation of MA into the PM, which generates a chemical linkage between BF and PM and which reduces the microvoids' formation [37,100]. On the other hand, the presence of BF reduces the hydrophilicity of the starch-based PC, because starch is more hydrophilic than cellulose [123].…”