Kesavan Pillai, SreejaraniRay, SSScriba, Manfred ROjijo, Vincent OHato, MJ2013-06-192013-06-192013-07Kesavan Pillai, S., Ray, S.S., Scriba, M., Ojijo, V. and Hato, M.J. 2013. Morphological and thermal properties of photodegradable biocomposite films. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, vol. 129(1), pp 362-3700021-8995http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/app.38763/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10204/6808Copyright: 2013 Wiley-Blackwell. This is the pre print version of the work. The definitive version is published in Journal of Applied Polymer Science, vol. 129(1), pp 362-370Biocomposites containing ultraviolet (UV) radiation absorbing inorganic nanofillers are of great interest in food packaging applications. The biodegradable polylactide (PLA) composite films were prepared by solvent casting method by incorporating 1 wt % of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and Ag-TiO2 (silver nanoparticles decorated TiO2) nanoparticles to impart the photodegradable properties. The films were exposed to UV radiation for different time periods and morphology of the composite films before and after UV exposure were investigated. The results showed that homogenous filler distribution was achieved in the case of Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles. The thermal properties and thermomechanical stability of the composite film containing Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles were found to be much higher than those of neat PLA and PLA/TiO2 composite films. The scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the photodegradability of PLA matrix was significantly improved in the presence of Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles.enCompositesDegradationNanoparticlesNanowiresNanocrystalsBiopolymersRenewable polymersArticleKesavan Pillai, S., Ray, S., Scriba, M. R., Ojijo, V. O., & Hato, M. (2013). Morphological and thermal properties of photodegradable biocomposite films. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/6808Kesavan Pillai, Sreejarani, SS Ray, Manfred R Scriba, Vincent O Ojijo, and MJ Hato "Morphological and thermal properties of photodegradable biocomposite films." (2013) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/6808Kesavan Pillai S, Ray S, Scriba MR, Ojijo VO, Hato M. Morphological and thermal properties of photodegradable biocomposite films. 2013; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/6808.TY - Article AU - Kesavan Pillai, Sreejarani AU - Ray, SS AU - Scriba, Manfred R AU - Ojijo, Vincent O AU - Hato, MJ AB - Biocomposites containing ultraviolet (UV) radiation absorbing inorganic nanofillers are of great interest in food packaging applications. The biodegradable polylactide (PLA) composite films were prepared by solvent casting method by incorporating 1 wt % of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and Ag-TiO2 (silver nanoparticles decorated TiO2) nanoparticles to impart the photodegradable properties. The films were exposed to UV radiation for different time periods and morphology of the composite films before and after UV exposure were investigated. The results showed that homogenous filler distribution was achieved in the case of Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles. The thermal properties and thermomechanical stability of the composite film containing Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles were found to be much higher than those of neat PLA and PLA/TiO2 composite films. The scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the photodegradability of PLA matrix was significantly improved in the presence of Ag-TiO2 nanoparticles. DA - 2013-07 DB - ResearchSpace DP - CSIR KW - Composites KW - Degradation KW - Nanoparticles KW - Nanowires KW - Nanocrystals KW - Biopolymers KW - Renewable polymers LK - https://researchspace.csir.co.za PY - 2013 SM - 0021-8995 T1 - Morphological and thermal properties of photodegradable biocomposite films TI - Morphological and thermal properties of photodegradable biocomposite films UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10204/6808 ER -