Evaluación de las propiedades mecánicas de biopelículas de celulosa de raquis de banano y zeolita a partir de diferentes formulaciones

Abstract

Given the great incidence that plastic products have in human life, it has been proposed to develop a biofilm with cellulose from banana rachis, which is a very abundant agricultural waste in the Banana Capital of the World, and clinoptilolite zeolite, which is an abundant mineral on the earth's surface, thus seeking to give added value to these agricultural wastes and at the same time present a new alternative to synthetic plastic. The sample of banana rachis cellulose used was obtained from the laboratory of the Faculty of Chemical and Health Sciences of the Technical University of Machala and the clinoptilolite zeolite was commercially acquired in Guayaquil. To obtain cellulose from banana rachis, the alkaline method was applied, and then the respective characterization was carried out, giving us favorable results compared to other bibliographic sources. The biofilms were obtained by the casting method, while their evaluation with respect to mechanical properties was carried out in the LenMav laboratory. For the formulation of the biofilms, four treatments A1B1, A2B1, A1B2, A2B2 were carried out, in which the study variables were the % of cellulose (1 - 1.3) and the % of zeolite (0.2 - 0.5). Treatments A1B1 and A2B1 presented a good elongation % with 6.65% and treatments A1B2 and A2B2 presented better modulus of elasticity with 11.90 MPa. However, none of these treatments showed any difference in their tensile strength. All treatments were analyzed under different national standards such as INEN 2290 (2015) for % elongation and tensile strength and INEN 2635:2012 for modulus of elasticity.