ABSTRACT
Na-carboxymethylcellulose (cmc) is biopolymer that offers immense structural possibilities for chemical and mechanical modifications to generate novel properties, functions and applications especially in biomedical area. In this work films fabricated from cmc incorporated with plasticizer at different weight ratios were prepared. This was carried out by employing a solvent-casting method incorporating halloysite nanoclay (nanotube) and silica nanoparticle (spherical) into the films. Scanning Electron Micrographs showed that nanoparticles were dispersed homogeneously throughout the polymer matrix in all of the cmc-nanocomposite films; tensile test showed that the mechanical strength of the films increased with increasing nanoparticle concentration. It was observed from the thermal gravimetry analysis (TGA) results that there is no significant variation in the thermal degradation temperature of the films with the addition of the nanoparticles. The hydrophilicity increased with the addition of nanoparticles, as seen from the contact angle, moisture content and water solubility results.
