Understanding the effects of copolymerized cellulose nanofibers and diatomite nanocomposite on blend chitosan films

Funding Information: R. F-M. would like to express her gratitude to the Department of Economic Development and Infrastructures of the Basque Government (scholarship of young researchers training) for supporting this research financially. E.R. wants to acknowledge the tenure track position “Biobased materials” part of E2S UPPA supported by the “Investissements d'Avenir” French program managed by ANR (ANR-16-IDEX-0002). The authors would like to acknowledge the technical and human support provided by SGIker (UPV/EHU/ERDF.EU) and Biotechnology Institute, Ankara University, Turkey. Funding Information: R. F-M. would like to express her gratitude to the Department of Economic Development and Infrastructures of the Basque Government (scholarship of young researchers training) for supporting this research financially. E.R. wants to acknowledge the tenure track position ?Biobased materials? part of E2S UPPA supported by the ?Investissements d'Avenir? French program managed by ANR (ANR-16-IDEX-0002). The authorswould like to acknowledge the technical and human support provided by SGIker (UPV/EHU/ERDF.EU) and Biotechnology Institute, Ankara University, Turkey. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)Chitosan films lack various important physicochemical properties and need to be supplemented with reinforcing agents to bridge the gap. Herein, we have produced chitosan composite films supplemented with copolymerized (with polyacrylonitrile monomers) cellulose nanofibers and diatomite nanocomposite at different concentrations. The incorporation of CNFs and diatomite enhanced the physicochemical properties of the films. The mechanical characteristics and hydrophobicity of the films were observed to be improved after incorporating the copolymerized CNFs/diatomite composite at different concentrations (CNFs: 1%, 2% and 5%; diatomite: 10% and 30%). The antioxidant activity gradually increased with an increasing concentration (1–5% and 10–30%) of copolymerized CNFs/diatomite composite in the chitosan matrix. Moreover, the water solubility decreased from 30% for chitosan control film (CH-0) to 21.06% for films containing 30% diatomite and 5% CNFs (CNFs-D30-5). The scanning electron micrographs showed an overall uniform distribution of copolymerized CNFs/diatomite composite in the chitosan matrix with punctual agglomerations.Peer reviewe