Synthesis Characterization of cotton fiber reinforced starch/PVA biodegradable composite films

The focus of this work is to study the effect of the cotton fibers reinforcement on the starch/ Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) blend films. The biodegradable composite films were prepared by starch, PVA and natural cotton fibers using solution casting method. The starch/PVA/cotton fiber films samples were analyzed for the tensile, chemical and morphological properties. Experimental results showed that the incorporation of the short cotton fibers into the starch/PVA matrix caused a reasonable improvement in of the tensile modulus (18.6 times), tensile strength (2.07 to 4.38MPa), elongation (104.56 to 8.82%) and impact strength (28.4%). Chemical and structure analysis were done by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and surface morphology were studied by optical microscope. The obtained results showed that addition of cotton fibers enhanced both the mechanical and surface properties of the starch/PVA blend film