PROPERTIES AND APPLICATIONS OF CITRIC

ACID CROSSLINKED BANANA FIBRE-WHEAT

GLUTEN FILMS

Presented by:- Guided By:-

Permit Kumar Rath Himanshu Sekhar Dash
Roll No:-34953 (Asst.Professor)
Regd No:-1621105112 Department of Production Engineering
 CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• MATERIALS
• METHODS
• RESULTS
• APPLICATION
• CONCLUSION
• REFERENCE
 INTRODUCTION
• Banana fiber is a natural cellulose rich fiber extracted from the stem
of the banana plant. Once the bananas are harvested from the plant,
pseudo stem is mostly considered as a residue and generally disposed by
burning or burying.
• Since large quantities of banana stems are available, it would be a good opportunity
to add value to banana stems and utilize the fibres for commercial applications.
• Natural cellulose fibres have been extracted from the stems of banana plants using
mechanical and chemical means.
• Banana fibres have good tensile properties and excellent appearance. Banana fibres
are used for the production of home furnishings, ropes, mats, packaging box, apparel,
garments etc.
• Wheat gluten is a protein having two major components known as glutenin and gliadin
which are responsible for the physical and chemical properties of wheat gluten.
• Several studies have been done to find applications for wheat gluten and most efforts
have been towards developing biodegradable packaging films for food wrapping and
storage.
• Wheat gluten films have exceptional oxygen and carbon dioxide barrier properties
along with very low water vapour barrier properties in contrast to plastic films.
• Wheat gluten is a protein having two major components known as glutenin and gliadin
which are responsible for the physical and chemical properties of wheat gluten.
• Several studies have been done to find applications for wheat gluten and most efforts
have been towards developing biodegradable packaging films for food wrapping and
storage.
• Wheat gluten films have exceptional oxygen and carbon dioxide barrier
properties along with very low water vapour barrier properties in
contrast to plastic films.
 MATERIALS
• Banana fibres were obtained from Tamilnadu Agricultural University,
Coimbatore, India.
• Wheat gluten was procured from P.D. Navakar Bio-chem private limited,
Bengaluru, India which had a protein content of 80%. The gluten purchased was
used without any further treatment or modifications.
• Citric acid was procured from HiMedia laboratories pvt. Ltd. Sodium hydroxide
and Gltd was obtained from nice chemicals (P) ltd.
• The chemicals used were of reagent grade andpurity was 99 ± 1%.
 METHODS
► Preparation of citric acid crosslinked banana
fiber – wheat gluten films.

► Water sorption studies

► Determination of mechanical properties

► Flame resistance

► Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

► X-ray diffraction studies

► Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA)

► Developing bioproducts

► Statistics
 RESULTS
• Water sorption studies

The ability of banana fibre – wheat gluten films to sorb water

varied considerably depending on the ratio of fibre to gluten, type of
crosslinker and crosslinker percentage (Fig. 2).
• It was found that water sorption was maximum for uncrosslinked/control films compared to
the crosslinked films. Based on the ratio of banana fibre to wheat gluten, irrespective of
whether crosslinked or uncrosslinked, lowest and highest water sorption was observed in
70-30 ratio and 30-70 ratio banana fibre/wheat gluten films, respectively.
• This can be attributed to the higher hydrophilicity of proteins compared to the banana
fibres.
• Due to the equal proportion of fibre and protein present in 50-50 films, water sorption
observed was found to be intermediate to that of 70-30 and 30-70 ratio banana fibre/wheat
gluten films.
• Sorption decreases with increase in fibre content due to the relatively low sorption of fibres
compared to wheat gluten.
• Mechanical properties

• Fig. 3 shows the tensile strength of various crosslinked films.

• The extent of crosslinking and the mechanical properties were mainly affected by the
ratio of fibre- gluten, type of crosslinker and percentage of crosslinker used
• Thermo gravimetric analysis
• Thermogravimetric (TG) and derivative thermogravimetric (DTA) curves of 70-30
ratio 5% CA crosslinked film, 70-30 ratio 5% Gltd crosslinked and 70-30 control film
are shown in Fig. 4.
• The temperature of maximum mass loss was analyzed using DTA curve.
• The major degradation peak of wheat gluten was observed at 300 °C (Cousineau,
2012) and for untreated/raw banana fibre this band was seen around 340 °C (Kumar et
al., 2008).
• The control 70-30 ratio film showed a major degradation peak at 460 °C.
• Fire retardant studies
Flame resistance of the crosslinked films prepared were independent of the
ratio of banana fibre and protein used. From Table 1, it can be observed that films of
all the ratios passed the UL-94 V-1 classification requirements i.e. the flames were
able to propagate through the films and self-extinguish after some time.
• When the samples were burnt, they were intact and no dripping was seen, which is
very much desirable for commercial applications. Similar results were observed for
biocomposites prepared for PCB application using banana fibre and wheat gluten
(Guna et al., 2016).
• The crosslinked films prepared can be treated with flame resistance chemicals to
obtain even higher flame retardancy.
• However, the proteins present in the film had the ability to self-extinguish and form
ash rather than melt which prevents damage to the adjacent components.
• Thus, if these films are used for packaging application, the risk of the packaged
product getting burnt would be minimal.
• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
analysis.
• The crosslinking reaction between banana
fibre and wheat gluten were confirmed by the
FTIR spectral studies (Fig. 5).

• There were considerable differences in the

spectral display between the control and
crosslinked films. Raw banana fibre showed
bands around 3400 cm-1, 2920 cm-1, 1635 cm-1
which can be attributed to OeH stretching of
COOH groups, CeH, C]C of the benzene ring
respectively present in the banana fibres.
• The presence of lignin and hemicellulose is suggested to provide a band around
1000–1500 cm-1. Absorbance band around 1023 cm-1 is due to the CeO stretching
present in alcohol of hemicellulose (Fan et al., 2012; Kumar et al., 2008)
• Wheat gluten shows bands around 3400 cm-1 and 2900 cm-1 due to NeH stretching in
amide A and B structures, respectively.
• The 1600 cm-1 band can be attributed to C]O stretching, out of phase stretching of
eCN, deformation of CCN group and eNH in plane bend.
• Band around 1500 cm-1 is due to the amide 2 group specifically due to in plane bends
of NH and CO, CN CC and NC stretch.
• Around 1250 cm-1 bands are seen due to amide 3 group. In phase NeH bending, CN
stretching and few CO in plane bending and CeC stretching has given rise to a band
around 1000 cm-1 (Cousineau, 2012).
• X ray diffraction studies
• Fig. 6 illustrates the XRD patterns of banana fibre,
wheat gluten and crosslinked films.
• The main diffraction of the crystal planes of this
lignocellulosic material is seen at 2θ values of 22.5
which is associated with a diffraction plane of (002).
• Also, a broad and unresolved peak is seen in the 2θ
range of 13–18° which corresponds to
crystallographic planes (101) and (102) of cellulose
(Miranda et al., 2015).
• Wheat gluten mainly shows two broad diffraction
peaks around 2θ values of 10 and 21 which is
characteristic of partially crystalline materials (Dou
et al., 2015).
• All the control and crosslinked samples showed
diffraction peaks similar to banana fibre, which tells
us that fibre is more prominent than proteins in
terms of the crystalline structure.
• Crosslinking process did not show any major
change in the XRD patterns.
 APPLICATIONS
• The one-step process of crosslinking banana fibre and
wheat gluten facilitate us to fabricate diverse
bioproducts.
• As seen from Fig. 7, various bioproducts can be prepared
from these films by compression moulding.
• Also the TGA and fir retardation studies show that the
bioproducts can withstand high temperatures for varie
applications.
• The films developed can be moulded into various shapes
such as box,cups, bowls etc. as well according to the
requirement.
• Since these products are completely biodegradable,
non- hazardous and chemical free, they contribute
towards sustainable development and clean environment. Fig. 7. Three dimensional cups, plates and
boxes developed by compression moulding of
• Good water resistance, fire retardation and excellent
banana fibre –wheat gluten films which
mechanical properties make these fibre- wheat gluten
demonstrates the feasibility of preparing
films suitable for developing into products.
various commodity products.
 CONCLUSION
• A simple method of crosslinking to improve mechanical properties and resistance to moisture has been
found to be a very effective approach to develop banana fibre-wheat gluten bioproducts suitable for
commercial applications.
• We demonstrate that crosslinking imparts high tensile strength to banana fibre – wheat gluten films.
Tensile strength and water sorption could be controlled by varying the ratio of fibre – gluten and
percentage of the crosslinker.

• As a crosslinker CA is inexpensive, nontoxic, efficient, convenient and easier to handle than Gltd.
Maximum strength of 13 MPa was exhibited by 50-50 and 30-70 ratio 5% CA containing films. Whereas,
5% Gltd crosslinked films displayed a maximum strength of 11 MPa.
• CA crosslinked films show marginally higher strength than Gtld films probably due to the adverse effect
of Gtld on the fibre and proteins when heated at higher temperatures. However, both the crosslinkers
provided about 50% decrease in water sorption.
• Films having 50-50 and 70-30% of fibre to gluten passed the UL-94 V-1 classification
requirements for fire retardancy. FTIR, mechanical and thermal studies confirmed
the crosslinking process between banana fibre, CA and wheat gluten.
• The films could be compression moulded into various shapes that can substitute the
synthetic polymer based material.
• A new approach of fabricating practically useful bioproducts using banana fibre
and wheat gluten has been demonstrated in this research.
 REFERENCES
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gluten composites for dielectric applications. J.
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Industries: Structure, Competition, and Trade. Montana State University, Department of Agricultural Economics
and Economics.
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cellulose-based edible films. J. Food Process Eng. 18, 417–429.
• Cousineau, J., 2012. Production and Characterization of Wheat Gluten Films. University
of Waterloo.
• Dou, Y., Huang, X., Zhang, B., He, M., Yin, G., Cui, Y., 2015. Preparation and characterization of a dialdehyde
starch crosslinked feather keratin film for food packaging application. RSC Adv. 5, 27168–27174
THANK YOU