Chemical Modification of the xylan extracted from bagasse pith to prepare antibacterial carboxymethyl xylan/chitosan film

Bio-refinery includes technologies which can convert biomass resources to valuable products. In this study, carboxymethylation of the xylan-rich hemicelluloses extracted from sugarcane bagasse pith was performed. DS of the carboxymethyl xylan (CMX) was determined 0.68 using ICP-OES analysis. The presence of absorption bands at 1580 and 1311 cm-1 in the FTIR spectrum of the modified xylan are associated to the stretching vibration of C-O bonds of carboxymethyl groups. The carboxymethyl xylan/chitosan (CMX/CS) films were then prepared by casting method. XRD pattern showed that the intensity of the characteristic peaks of the chitosan reduced after film preparation which may be due to decreasing the crystalline nature of the film. SEM images showed that the surface of the film is uniform. The observed exothermic peak in DSC thermograms showed that the films degraded at higher than 200oC. Water vapor permeability (WVP) of the carboxymethyl xylan/chitosan film was measured 0.84± 0.1 g mm/m2 h kPa. Colorimetric analysis proved that the white index (WI) of the CMX/CS film increased as compared with xylan/chitosan film. In contrary, the yellow index (YI) of the CMX/CS film decreased. Swelling ratios of the CMX/CS and xylan/CS films were measured as 130.42 and 95.71 respectively. The prepared CMX/CS films exhibited higher tensile strength in compared to xylan/chitosan film. This may be resulted from the interactions between amine groups of chitosan and carboxyl groups of CMX. CMX/CS film exhibited the higher antibacterial activity against E. coli that S. aureus.