الفهرس 
acknowledgmentOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Proteic waste materials from pharmaceutical manufacturing, tanning and
agro-industries have attracted increasing attention because their intrinsic
agronomic values bond to the high nitrogen content. Proteins of animals or
vegetable origin can be itself transformed into biomaterials, or blended with
synthetic and natural polymers. This latter approach represents the aims of this
work. Many types of films have been prepared by using waste pharmaceutical
gelatin with natural or synthetic additives such as sugar cane bagasse, sawdust
and poly (vinyl alcohol).
Blends and composites, based on waste gelatin, synthetic water-soluble polymer
as well as lignocellulosic agro industrial by-products such as sugar cane bagasse
and sawdust, containing active agents and herbicides, have been prepared by
simple casting procedure of water solutions and/or dispersions to produce thin
coherent films for agricultural applications as mulching films and in controlled
release. Elemental analysis, scanning electron microscope, and mechanical
properties have been used to characterize these films.
The results showed that mechanical properties as well as degradation rate and
extent of the investigated blends and composites could be modulated by suitably
tuning their chemical composition. In addition, the different components of the
blends might exert a beneficial role on soil structure and fertility.