Enhanced mechanical strength of vortex fluidic mediated biomass-based biodegradable films composed from agar, alginate and kombucha cellulose hydrolysates

Biodegradable, biomass derived kombucha cellulose films with increased mechanical strength from 9.98 MPa to 18.18 MPa were prepared by vortex fluidic device (VFD) processing. VFD processing not only reduced the particle size of kombucha cellulose from approximate 2 μm to 1 μm, but also reshaped its structure from irregular to round. The increased mechanical strength of these polysaccharide-derived films is the result of intensive micromixing and high shear stress of a liquid thin film in a VFD. This arises from the incorporation at the micro-structural level of uniform, unidirectional strings of kombucha cellulose hydrolysates, which resulted from the topological fluid flow in the VFD. The biodegradability of the VFD generated polymer films was not compromised relative to traditionally generated films. Both films were biodegraded within 5 days.