Polyvinyl alcohol based composite film modified with grapefruit peel waste and V₂O₅ nanoparticles

The aim of this work was to produce biodegradable film based on polyvinyl alcohol/vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅)/grapefruit peel powder (GF) (PVA/GF/V₂O₅). Grapefruit peel powder and V₂O₅ effects on the physicochemical/structural properties of the films was evaluated. The properties like, solubility, thickness, antioxidant activity, humidity, water vapor permeability (WVP), color indices, FTIR, TGA, SEM and XRD tests were investigated. According to the results, increasing of grapefruit peel powder led to an increase in the color indices (a and b) and thickness of the films, and on the other hand, a decrease in the solubility and L index was observed with the addition of V₂O₅ nanoparticles in the samples. Addition of V₂O₅ to the film increased the index a and b of the samples. The antioxidant properties of the samples increased with the addition of grapefruit peel powder and V₂O₅. The electrostatic interaction between polyvinyl alcohol, grapefruit peel powder, and V₂O₅ nanoparticles was confirmed by FTIR. According to the SEM images, films containing grapefruit peel powder and nanoparticles have a granular heterogeneous film. The TGA results showed that the thermal stability of films containing grapefruit peel powder and nanoparticles was better than the control sample, and the results obtained from XRD showed that with the addition of grapefruit peel powder, there were slight changes in the intensity of the peaks, and addition of V₂O₅ led to the increasing of peak intensity, which has the highest percentage of impact on the film’s crystallite structure.