Fabrication and assessment of carboxymethyl guar gum-based sustainable films for packaging application

This study aimed towards the fabrication of biodegradable packaging films using carboxymethyl guar gum (CMG) as the base material. Various ratios of glycerol (Gly) as a plasticizer and glutaraldehyde (Glu) as a cross-linker were employed in the synthesis of these biopolymer-based films through the solution casting technique. Comprehensive characterization, such as attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), was conducted. The films were further examined for tensile strength, percent elongation, thickness, solubility in water, gloss, haze, and transparency. The maximum tensile strength of 37.82 MPa, maximum percent elongation of 124.20%, maximum gloss  of 25.52% at a 20° angle, maximum haze of 41.93%, maximum transparency of 88.53%, and a minimum water solubility of 60.42% were observed for the developed films. This reveals that CMG-based films hold promising potential as a novel biomaterial for future applications in packaging, such as edible coatings and water-soluble, biodegradable packaging films.