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Valorization of paddy straw through development of PLA-paddy straw fibre reinforced composites and their physical, morphological, mechanical and thermal characterization

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Abstract

Over the recent years, two environmental issues have gained much attention — pollution caused by single use plastics and pollution caused by disposal of agricultural residues in inappropriate ways like stubble burning. Consequently, scientists have been trying to develop materials to replace single use plastics as well as eco-friendly techniques for disposal and valorization of agricultural residues.

The present study was planned to explore its utilisation for developing a compostable bio-polymer with polylactic acid (PLA) matrix and paddy straw powder (PSP) as a bio-filler. To enhance its ready degradation, paddy straw was pre-treated with NaOH before extrusion into granules. The composite granules were produced using a melt-mixing method, and their structure and morphology were analysed using scanning electron microscopy. Incorporation of paddy straw led to changes in the microstructure of the composites, and a homogeneous distribution of paddy straw fibres in the samples was observed. Furthermore, the nucleation effect in developed composite materials was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. Each PLA-PSP composite exhibited variation in physical, morphological, thermal, and mechanical characteristics. Thermal degradation temperature of the composite material increased by more than 58°C with increased concentration of PSP. While considering all the parameters, composite material with 30% PSP concentration exhibited the most desirable characteristics in terms of balance of strength, thermal stability, and surface properties material. The PLA-30%PSP composite material had a browning index of 39.04±1.69, degradation temperature of 382.70 °C, glass transition temperature of 76.39°C and impact strength of 62.37 ± 5.63 J/m. This study provides an insight into development of structure of PLA-paddy straw fibre composites and their characterisation for potential application as eco-friendly, compostable alternative for food packaging.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the labs in Department of Processing and Food Engineering, P.A.U., Ludhiana. Also, authors are thankful to the Vee Kay Polymers, Pune, India, for assistance in the extrusion process.

Funding

Financial support was provided in the form of senior research fellowship by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, India.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Processing and Food Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India

    Pratik Pandit Potdar & Preetinder Kaur

  2. School of Polymer Engineering, Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University, Pune, India

    Subramanian Radhakrishnan

  3. Department of Renewable Energy and Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India

    Manpreet Singh & Sukhmeet Singh

  4. School of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University, Pune, India

    Himangi T. Neve

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  1. Pratik Pandit Potdar
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  2. Preetinder Kaur
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  4. Manpreet Singh
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  5. Himangi T. Neve
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Contributions

Pratik Pandit Potdar: investigation: formal analysis; writing — review and editing; writing — original draft; data curation. Preetinder Kaur: conceptualization; funding acquisition; supervision; project administration; writing— review and editing. S. Radhakrishnan: conceptualization; methodology; visualization; Manpreet Singh: supervision; project administration. Himangi Neve: help in equipment handling, conceptualization. Sukhmeet Singh: conceptualization

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Correspondence to Pratik Pandit Potdar or Preetinder Kaur.

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Potdar, P.P., Kaur, P., Radhakrishnan, S. et al. Valorization of paddy straw through development of PLA-paddy straw fibre reinforced composites and their physical, morphological, mechanical and thermal characterization. Biomass Conv. Bioref. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-023-04752-2

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