The morphology analysis of waste banana peel thin films

Abstract

In the present work, the conversion of waste banana peels fiber (WBP) as a raw material into the biopolymer film intended to replace synthetic plastics was studied. Bio-films from waste banana peel will be investigating the morphology of films by the effects of glycerol content. Films composite were produced by mixing of banana peel fiber in 150ml of distilled water for one hour at 80oC. Then it were blended by using blender and glycerol added with different glycerol content (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 grams) . The solution was premixed and then heated from room temperature to 80oC, where it was maintained for 1 h while being constantly mixing. The solution was then allowed to cool at 40 oC, before ready to casting into aluminium mold. The mixed suspensions were immediately poured onto a aluminium-nylon mesh mold to form a composite thin film. The films were then pressed with heat press machine at 120oC for 5 minutes. The composites will dry for 24 h in an ambient room temperature in dessicator at about 37 oC until they reached a constant weight. The thickness of the films was controlled by the addition of the same weight of suspension into a dish of same size. The finial thickness of the film was about 0.20 mm. The micrograph of films with different glycerol content was examine by using by scanning electron micrograph (SEM).This figures showed the surface morphology of the banana peel powder where it revealed that the peels have an irregular and rough surface.The result show that the morphology of films were influenced by different grams of glycerol content (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 grams) used. For thin films of 10grams of glycerol (G1) shows less coarse granules were observed.