Evaluación de propiedades fisicoquímicas a películas elaboradas de celulosa de bagazo de caña de azúcar con zeolita.

Abstract

Plastic pollution is one of the most critical environmental problems today. These materials, derived from fossil fuels, have a short lifespan, but remain in the environment for centuries. A sustainable alternative to mitigate this impact is the development of biodegradable plastics from natural polymers such as starch. This research focused on the development and evaluation of biodegradable films using the casting method, using a 22 factorial design that allowed obtaining four treatments with different concentrations of sugarcane bagasse cellulose and clinoptilolite zeolite. Key properties such as water solubility, water vapor permeability (WVP), moisture content, thickness, density and color were analyzed. The results showed that the incorporation of the reinforcements improved the functionality of the films by reducing their solubility and water vapor permeability. In addition, an increase in thickness and density was observed, while the colorimetry presented variations associated with the presence of the reinforcements. The films obtained complied with national and international regulations, registering a thickness of 0.22 mm (INEN 2635:2012), a solubility of 47.43% (ASTM D3132-84 and ISO 175:2011) and a WVP of 0.0033 g*mm/h*MPa (ASTM E96-24A and ISO 15106-6:2015), within acceptable limits. Given its superior performance, treatment 4 was selected for advanced characterization by XRD, XRF and FTIR, the results of which confirmed the structural and functional influence of cellulose and clinoptilolite zeolite. Finally, it was concluded that the addition of these reinforcements significantly improved the properties of the films, suggesting their potential application as a biodegradable material for food coatings.