Abstract
Thought to make the environment green and restrict fossil sources is increasing day by day. Renewable sources are helpful in production of green materials as they are biodegradable and non-toxic to living being and atmosphere. Our main concern is to from biodegradable polymeric product from non biodegradable product. Graft copolymerization was used to prepare biodegradable gelatin grafted vinyl acetate methylmethacrylate nanocomposite. Gelatin backbone used as biodegradable material and grafted with vinyl acetate Methylmethacrylate. This polymer was fully characterized by Fourier transform Infrared (FTIR), Thermogravemetric analysis (TGA), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The polymer nanocomposite was prepared by adding the suitable amount of Ni doped ZnO nanoparticles. Biodegradability was checked by soil burial method. Percent weight loss was measured as a function of number of days and results showed that degradability increase with the number of day's up to 44.39%. Degradation studies showed that Gelatin-Grafted-Vinyl Acetate-Methylmethacrylate is more degraded as compare to Gelatin-Grafted-Vinyl Acetate-Methylmethacrylate nanocomposite. Results showed that the grafting was a flexible tool to impart biodegradation to non biodegradable polymers. Addition of nanoparticles gave them a resistance against microbes up to an extent. Therefore this nanocomposite can be used successfully as biodegradable food packaging material.