Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
22TH INTERNATIONAL ISTANBUL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CONGRESS ON LIFE, ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES , İstanbul, Türkiye, 20 - 22 Ağustos 2025, ss.337-351, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
Today, a large number of plastic products are synthesized and discarded after use. Despite their endless benefits and applications, plastics have a negative impact on the environment. They are primarily composed of carbon and hydrogen, which are uniquely resistant to degradation in the natural environment. Their lack of biodegradability puts nature at risk of losing its natural habitat. In this study, nanocrystalline cellulose (CNC) obtained from cucumber peel (Cucumber sativus L. ‘Beith Alpha’) biomass source was added as a filler to a matrix of chitosan, a biodegradable polymer, to prepare nanocomposites. To obtain the nanocomposite, cellulose was first extracted from biomass waste. The resulting celluloses were then converted into nanocrystalline celluloses through a series of processes. Nanocomposites were prepared by adding 5% by mass of the resulting nanocrystalline celluloses to chitosan using the solution casting method. The aim of this study is to obtain new biodegradable materials with superior properties and more environmentally friendly properties using smaller amounts of filler compared to traditional composites. In the final stage of the study, surface and morphological characterization of natural biomass (cucumber peel), nanocrystalline cellulose obtained from this biomass, and the synthesized nanocomposite were performed using Inverse Gas Chromatography (IGC), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Xray diffraction scattering (XRD). The chemical structures and thermal behaviors of these biomass were investigated. Both cellulose and chitosan have promising potential to replace petroleum-based polymers in various applications such as reinforcing fillers, adsorbents of heavy metal ions, functional food protective packaging, controlled drug bioactive release, biomedical tissue engineering scaffolds and biosensors. The results indicated that the nanocrystal-added bioplastic films obtained from cucumber peels have superior properties compared to traditional composite films. Therefore, it can be concluded from the results that bioplastic materials synthesized from cucumber peels provide an innovative way to efficiently utilize waste cucumber peels and may be an abundant, readily available, biodegradable, and green alternative to harmful petroleum-based synthetic plastics.