Title
Pineapple shell fiber as reinforcement in cassava starch foam trays
Date Issued
01 October 2019
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
SAGE Publications Ltd
Abstract
Pineapple shell, considered a waste in the juice industry, was used as a reinforcement material to produce biodegradable foam trays (FTs) based on cassava starch by a compression molding process. These foams were prepared with different starch/fiber ratios and then were characterized according to their microstructure and physical and mechanical properties. The starch/fiber ratio of 95/5 showed the lowest values of thickness and density (2.58 mm and 367 kg m−3, respectively). There was a good distribution of the pineapple shell fiber throughout the polymeric matrix. All FTs showed a semicrystalline structure and 95/5 ratio showed the highest crystallinity index (CI) value (39%). In addition, this ratio improved the tensile strength of the FTs, obtaining similar values to expanded polystyrene (EPS) samples, used as the reference material. Nevertheless, all FTs reinforced with pineapple shell fiber showed high water absorption capacity (WAC); therefore, future studies should focus on to improve the physicochemical and structural properties of the cassava starch-based foams, considering the promising potential of this novel biodegradable material for dry food packaging, such as a viable alternative to reduce the use of petroleum-based materials such as commercial EPS trays.
Start page
496
End page
506
Volume
27
Issue
8
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería industrial Ciencia de los polímeros
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85073005174
Source
Polymers and Polymer Composites
ISSN of the container
09673911
Sponsor(s)
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by “Programa Nacional de Innovación para la Competitividad y Productividad Innóvate Perú – Ex-FINCyT (Contract 407-PNICP-PIAP-2014).”
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus