Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Polymers and the Environment https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-018-1215-6 ORIGINAL PAPER Properties of Poly(Vinyl Alcohol)/Chitosan Nanocomposite Films Reinforced with Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Amorphous Lignocellulose Nanofbers Achmad Solikhin 1  · Yusuf Sudo Hadi 1  · Muh Yusram Massijaya 1  · Siti Nikmatin 2  · Shigehiko Suzuki 3  · Yoichi Kojima 3  · Hikaru Kobori 3 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate the properties of poly(vinyl alcohol)/chitosan nanocomposite flms reinforced with diferent concentration of amorphous LCNFs. The properties analyzed were morphological, physical, chemical, thermal, biological, and mechanical characteristics. Oil palm empty fruit bunch LCNFs obtained from multi-mechanical stages were more dominated by amorphous region than crystalline part. Varied flm thickness, swelling degree, and transparency of PVA/ chitosan nanocomposite flms reinforced with amorphous part were produced. Aggregated LCNFs, which reinforced PVA/ chitosan polymer blends, resulted in irregular, rough, and uneven external surfaces as well as protrusions. Based on XRD analysis, there were two or three imperative peaks that indicated the presence of crystalline states. The increase in LCNFs concentration above 0.5% to PVA/chitosan polymer blends led to the decrease in crystallinity index of the flms. A notice- able alteration of FTIR spectra, which included wavenumber and intensity, was obviously observed along with the inclu- sion of amorphous LCNFs. That indicated that a good miscibility between amorphous LCNFs and PVA/chitosan polymer blend generated chemical interaction of those polymers during physical blending. Reinforcement of PVA/chitosan polymer blends with amorphous LCNFs infuenced the changes of T g (glass transition temperature), T m (melting point temperature), and T max (maximum degradation temperature). Three thermal phases of PVA/chitosan/LCNFs nanocomposite flms were also observed, including absorbed moisture evaporation, PVA and chitosan polymer backbone structural degradation and LCNFs pyrolysis, and by-products degradation of these polymers. The addition of LCNFs 0.5% had the highest tensile strength and the addition of LCNFs above 0.5% decreased the strength. The incorporation of OPEFB LCNFs did not show anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties of the flms. The addition of amorphous LCNFs 0.5% into PVA/chitosan polymer blends resulted in regular and smooth external surfaces, enhanced tensile strength, increased crystallinity index, and enhanced thermal stability of the flms. Keywords Reinforcement · PVA/chitosan polymer blends · Nanocomposite flms · Amorphous LCNFs Introduction Advancing awareness to the importance of sustainable ecol- ogy and energy has been an indispensable demand for human beings to discover an eco-friendly food packaging based on renewable biomaterials. This is an alternative to petroleum- based sythetic materials, which are not eco-friendly, expen- sive, non-renewable, and non-biodegradable. As a solution, the development of composite flms derived from the blends between synthetic polymer and biopolymer has been one of the solutions for the above burden. For instance, the blend between poly(vinyl alcohol) and chitosan is one of the best examples for the aforementioned proposition [1–7]. To Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-018-1215-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Achmad Solikhin achmad.solikhin1993@gmail.com 1 Department of Forest Products, Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor 16680, West Java, Indonesia 2 Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor 16680, West Java, Indonesia 3 Department of Environment and Forest Resources Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka-shi 422-8529, Shizuoka-Ken, Japan