Biodegradable packaging films based on bacterial cellulose–sodium alginate blends: enhancing functional and structural properties

Abstract Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a biopolymer with significant promise as a biodegradable packaging material. Some of BC’s shortcomings, like as high-water vapor permeability (WVP) and opacity, can be mitigated by polymeric blending. Polymeric blending is a technique for improving the WVP and transparency of biodegradable packaging film by combining BC with Na-alginate. In this work, BC was mixed with Na-alginate at various ratios (90:10, 80:20, 70:30, and 60:40) to determine the effect on the properties of the resulting biodegradable packaging film. The combination of BC, Na-alginate, and glycerol can provide clear bioplastics with tensile strength, WVP, opacity, and thermal stability comparable to commercial bioplastics. The BC:Na-alginate (80:20) ratio resulted in packing material with the lowest WVP value (5.08x10 -13 g/m.s.Pa), lowest opacity (3.04 Abs/mm), best thermal characteristics (Td = 275.65 °C), and mechanical strength of 19.57 MPa.