STM Journals Peer-reviewed research from Consortium e-Learning Network

Journal of Polymer & Composites Original Research

Structure-Property Modeling and Engineering Optimization of Biodegradable Starch-Cellulose Biofoams for Sustainable Packaging

  1. Danish Khan Department of Commerce, St. Joseph’s College of Commerce (Autonomous), Bengaluru
  2. Sraboni Dutta Faculty of Management, JIS University, Kolkata
  3. Moumita Roy Faculty of Management, JIS University, Kolkata
  4. Arnab Chakraborty Department of Cyber Science and Technology, Brainware University, Kolkata
  5. Susmita Biswas Department of Cyber Science & Technology, Brainware University, Kolkata
  6. Nidhi Jain Department of Management (Finance), Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune
  7. Pritha Chakraborty Department of Computational Sciences, Brainware University, Kolkata
  8. Ritam Rajak Department of Artificial Intelligence & Machine learning, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Science, Technology & Architecture, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur
  9. Indrajit Ghosal Department of Management, Brainware University, Kolkata

Abstract

Since the packaging industry is an engineered product with complex composites that involve a close relationship between composition, processing, and performance, optimization of formulation, cellular morphology, and engineering performance of biodegradable starch-based biofoams presents a considerable challenge. This study proposes a machine-learning-aided structure–property modeling framework to design and optimize starch-based biodegradable biofoams for sustainable packaging applications. A physics-informed synthetic dataset consisting of 10,000 formulations was created based on engineering relationships between the contents of starch, cellulose, and glycerol, and the following properties of the foam: foam morphology, mechanical behavior, moisture absorption, water vapour transmission rate, durability, and the behavior when used for packaging. The three machine learning algorithms, random forest (RF), extra trees (ET), and multilayer perceptron (MLP), were tested for multi-output property prediction. The Extra Trees model yielded the best predictive performance ( = 0.879), and the values of each property of this model ranged from 0.862 to 0.938 for water vapor transmission rate and 0.868 to 0.937 for moisture absorption, respectively. The foam's structural characteristics, wall thickness, and combined axial and circumferential deformations were suggested as playing a key role in the engineering performance, based on the results of feature importance analysis. The mechanical integrity, barrier properties, and durability were further optimized by engineering, which resulted in a range of 64.8 to 76.4 wt.% of starch, 21.2 to 24.5 wt.% of cellulose, and 5.0 to 13.8 wt.% of glycerol. The suggested framework provides an efficient data-driven proposal for designing biodegradable polymers and developing polymer materials for sustainable packaging.

Keywords

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