Elaboration and Characterization of Cellulose Acetate Film with Natural Plasticizer

Cellulose Acetate (CA) is one of the most important organic esters and it is widely used for various applications, such as raw material in the production of filters, antimicrobials films, membranes and others products. Moreover, cellulose acetate is very rigid due to the β-D-glycose ring in its main chain, and the presence of many hydrogen bonds between the hydroxyl groups, which limits the extent of its application in packaging. It is required to add plasticizers. The objective of the present research is to compare the effect of petrochemical and natural plasticizers on the properties of cellulose acetate films. We prepared cellulose acetate films via solvent casting method incorporating some concentration of petrochemicals and natural plasticizers. The films prepared were characterized using Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-Ray Diffraction analysis (XRD), and Scanning electron microscopy analysis. Experimental results show the ability of natural plasticizer to compete with petrochemical resource plasticizers in the development of films for packaging applications.