The effect of lignin containing nanocellulose from sugarcane leaves on agar bioplastics as an active packaging.

Plastics-based food packaging is increasingly used recently especially, for fresh products such as fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, the plastic packaging for those products made from fossil fuel-based such as PP, PE, and PVC is not biodegradable and only counters for water resistance. This research aims to isolate the LCNF from sugarcane leaves and to evaluate the effect of LCNF on plasticized agar bioplastics. Lignin-containing nanocellulose (LCNF) from sugarcane leaves which has a lignin content of about 4.12% and cellulose of about 69.65% used as an active agent for agar-based bioplastics. LCNF was produced using an ultrafine masuko grinder with the stone gap in-30,-50,-70, and-10 mm with 5 cycles for each gap. Some LCNF in about 5% up to 20% was blended in plasticized agar solution at 90 ˚C for about an hour then cast in 20 x 20 cm molding. The bioplastics were conditioned at room temperature for 24 h and then oven-dried at 50 ˚C for another 24 h. The bioplastics of agar-LCNF with a thickness of about 0.1 mm have been produced. The novel finding of this study is LCNF incorporated with residual silica dioxide of sugarcane leaves. The addition of LCNF up to 15-20% improves water uptake ratio by about 54%, water solubility by about 5%, and water vapor penetration rate by about 73.81% than plasticized agar. The agar-LCNF bioplastic remains transparent with less UV blocking ability. The mechanical properties especially elongation at break enhance about 22% more than plasticized agar. The thermal stability of agar-LCNF bioplastic improves by about 3.7% for Tonset and 5,1% for Tmax. The agar-LCNF bioplastic is remarkably active on barrier ability which has potential as fresh food packaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]