Biodegradation behaviors and water adsorption of poly(vinyl alcohol)/starch/carboxymethyl cellulose/clay nanocomposites

The focus of this work is to study the effect of sodium montmorillonite (MMT-Na) clay content on the rate and extent of enzymatic hydrolysis polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/starch (S)/carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) blends using enzyme cellulase. The rate of glucose production from each nanocomposite substrates was most rapid for the substrate without MMT-Na and decreased with the addition of MMT-Na for PVA/S/CMC blend (51.5 mu g/ml h), PVA/S/CMC/1% MMT (45.4 mu g/ml h), PVA/S/CMC/3% MMT (42.8 mu g/ml h), and PVA/S/CMC/5% MMT (39.2 mu g/ml h). The results of this study have revealed that films with MMT-Na content at 5 wt.% exhibited a significantly reduced rate and extent of hydrolysis. Enzymatic degradation behavior of MMT-Na containing nanocomposites of PVA/S/CMC was based on the determinations of weight loss and the reducing sugars. The degraded residues have been characterized by various analytical techniques, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electronic microscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy.