Synthesis of soy protein based biocomposites for packaging applications

Abstract

Introduction of Soy Protein based bionanocomposites in the present era has made a significant contribution to extent the shelf-life of human being. It increases the food quality as well as put a huge impact on reducing the packaging waste. Bionanocomposites are high performing, light weighted green materials as compare to conventional non-biodegradable petroleum based plastic packaging materials. Most of the bionanocomposites used so far for packaging application are starch and cellulose derivatives such as polylactic acid (PLA), polycaprolactone (PCL), poly(butylenes succinate) (PBS) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). In the present chapter, incorporation of different inorganic nano-fillers in soft network of bio-based soy protein was obtained by green technique. The characterisation of prepared bionanocomposites, bonding pattern and their behaviour have been presented through morphological analysis, UV-visible spectroscopy, FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) Spectroscopy, XRD (X-ray Diffraction) Spectroscopy. The thermal, mechanical biodegradability, chemical resistance and gas barrier properties of soy based nanocomposites are measured and compared. Finally a detail discussion on its packaging application and future aspect is presented.