Production of Polyvinyl Alcohol-Lignin Nanocomposite Film with Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch as Lignin Source

Abstract

One effort to reduce the food spoilage from microorganisms is by using active packaging that can maintain the quality of the products. Lignin is a material that has antimicrobial properties, antioxidants, anti-UV, and a good reinforcement agent in matrix polymers which is a potential candidate of active packaging material. One source of lignin is oil palm empty bunches (OPEFB). The purpose of this study was to produce lignin nanoparticle (nanolignin) from OPEFB and produce its PVA-nanocomposite. Nanolignin was produced by mechanical treatment by using ultrasonication. PVA-nanocomposites were produced from the mixture of PVA with different molecular weight (degree of polymerization 500 and 2000) as the matrix with the addition of nanolignin (0, 1, 3, and 5 wt%) as the fillers. The casting method was implemented to produce nanocomposite. The morphology of film was observed by using scanning electron method (SEM), chemical component by fourier transform infrared (FTIR), transparency by UV-vis spectrometer, mechanical properties by tensile strength analysis and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and thermal properties by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The addition of nanolignin until 3 wt% increased crystallinity, tensile strength, and thermal properties of nanocomposite films. However, the addition of 5 wt% of nanolignin showed that the nanolignin is well dispersed in the low molecular weight of PVA matrix, which was shown by the high Young’s modulus and low crystallinity. Nanolignin is a good filler for the next-generation functional nanocomposite, especially in the manufacturing of the active packaging.