Films based on cellulose and starch obtained from agro-industrial residues

Every year, the world generates a large amount of agro-industrial waste without any reuse. However, these residues are rich in compounds of significant commercial interest, such as the biopolymers starch and cellulose. These biopolymers can be used in several industrial applications, such as constituents of food films. Mango’s peel, tegument and kernel are residues from industrial juice production. The mango kernel and tegument are rich in starch and cellulose, respectively. In this paper, the cellulose was extracted from mango tegument, and the starch was extracted from mango kernel. The starch was chemically modified by an esterification reaction with octenyl succinic anhydride. Two starch- and cellulose-based films were produced: one of modified starch and mango tegument cellulose and another film of modified starch and fluff-type cellulose. Both films used the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate [Emim][Ac] as the solvent. The films were characterized using FTIR, TGA, XRD, SEM, tensile tests, and WCA techniques. The films produced have functional groups of starch and cellulose, are amorphous, have heterogeneous surface structures, have low resistance, and have a hydrophilic character. According to the results, [Emim][Ac] probably affected the starch structure, causing its depolymerization and, consequently, a decrease in crystallinity.