Institutional Digital Repository (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpu)

Majee, Santana

A Study on Harmonic Univalent Functions

Santikellur, Pranesh S

Design and Analysis of Machine Learning based Modeling Attacks on Strong Physically Unclonable Functions

Bhattacharya, Proma

Development of Antibacterial Polymer Nanocomposite Hydrogels as Wound Healing Bandages

Ghosh, Timam

Service Orchestration in Society 5.0

Roy, Subhrajit

Protic Ionic Liquid Mediated Catalytic Conversion of Lignocelluloses to Biofuel Precursors

Mandal, Arka

Bulk-to-Local Deformation behaviour of High-Performance Steels

Bhattacharya, Koushik

Tailor Made Glycopolymers via Reversible Deactivation Radical Polymerization: Design, Properties and Applications

Mishra, Priyanka

Protection of Distribution Systems in the Presence of Inverter-Interfaced Solar Photovoltaic Plants

Bera, Reema

Consumer Preference towards Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle in the Indian Scenario

Nandi, Sujosh

Thesis title: Development of a potato starch-guar gum based active bio-nanocomposite film 
           incorporating components from petioles of betel leaf (Piper betle L.) 
Name of research scholar: Sujosh Nandi 
Roll No.: 15AG92R02 
Name of supervisor: Prof. Proshanta Guha 
Abstract 
Growing awareness about food safety and eco-friendly packaging film have created necessity 
to develop active biodegradable food packaging film for avoiding trillion tonnes of non-
biodegradable plastic waste polluting the global environment. With this necessity, the current 
study dealt with development of a potato starch (PS) and guar gum (GG) based active bio-
nanocomposite film by incorporating extract and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) of petioles of 
betel leaf (BLP). The proportion of PS, GG and glycerol (plasticizer) was optimized by 
rotatable central composite design and the optimum values of PS, GG and glycerol were 
obtained as 3.70%, 0.40% and 15% (of total dry weight of PS & GG), respectively. Three 
different organic acids, namely succinic, malic and tartaric acids were tested as cross-linkers 
to improve mechanical and water barrier properties. However, these acids behaving as 
plasticizer in potato starch-guar gum (PSGG) composite polymer matrix, caused deterioration 
of the properties and hence, rejected. Two different chemical treatment methods were adopted 
to extract cellulose from BLP. The successful method included dilute acid hydrolysis treatment 
(1% HCl) followed by acidic bleaching (1.70% NaClO2), alkali treatment (8% NaOH) and 
again acidic bleaching treatment. This method extracted 81.15% of pure cellulosic fibre from 
BLP. For extraction of CNC, the cellulosic fibre was subjected to sulphuric acid hydrolysis 
treatment, and extracted BLP-CNC had rod-like structure with length of 54–347 nm and 
diameter of 2.82–10.17 nm. Incorporation of the CNC into PSGG film improved mechanical 
and barrier properties of the film. Among four different selected solvents, namely hexane, 
acetone, ethanol and toluene:ethanol (1:2), acetone was found to be the most suitable solvent 
for preparation of BLP extract with superior antioxidant and anti-microbial activity. The 
addition of this extract to PSGG film imparted antioxidant activity to the film but diminished 
its mechanical and water barrier properties. Hence, BLP-CNC was embedded into extract 
blended PSGG (PSGG-BLPE) films and it was found that the CNC was also effective in 
improving the properties of PSGG-BLPE films. The developed film completely degraded 
within 35–42 days in soil. 
Keywords: Bio-composite film; Potato starch; Guar gum; Organic acids; Cellulose; Acid 
hydrolysis; Cellulose nanocrystal; Petioles of betel leaf; Extract; Antioxidant; Antimicrobial; 
Film properties; SEM; AFM; XRD; TEM; FTIR; TG; Biodegradability 


Development of a Potato Starch-Guar Gum Based Active Bio-Nanocomposite Film Incorporating Components from Petioles of Betel Leaf (Piper betle L.)

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