Water resistance
Water resistance properties, determined by WS, SR, and
WVUR, of agar and agar/clay nanocomposite films are shown
in Table 6.
After formation of nanocomposite, agar/Cloisite Na+
nanocomposite films showed a significantly increase in theWS and
SR, while the WVUR did not show any significant change.
On
the contrary, the SR and WVUR decreased significantly in both agar/Cloisite 30B and 20A nanocomposite films, while the WS did not change significantly.
The increase in the WS and SRR of
agar/Cloisite Na+ nanocomposite films may be attributed to the
hydrophilic nature of the Cloisite Na+, while hydrophobicity of
organoclays caused decrease in the SR and WVUR of the resulting
nanocomposite films.
It is noteworthy that the agar/Cloisite
Na+ nanocomposite film has a high water holding capacity (high
SR) with increased mechanical strength and moderate flexibility,
which is a desirable properties for the utilization as a hydrogel
(Farris and others 2009).
Table 3–Surface roughness of the agar and agar nanocomposite
films determined by AFM.1