In this work, an extensive study was carried out regarding to the preparation and characterization of nanoclay biocomposites based on cellulose as substituted for synthetic polymer foam trays for food packaging materials. The preparation stage was performed via dissolution/regeneration route followed by drying using lyophilization. The goal of this study was to improve the properties of cellulose matrix as well as reducing the bubble sizes to prepare nanofoams in order to enhance mechanical and barrier properties, and thermal insulation performance. Several methods were used to characterize the prepared foam materials including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), thermal conductivity, mechanical and barrier properties, density and color analyses. The obtained results indicated that the presence of nanoclay in cellulose matrix caused more uniformity in the structure of the foams. Also, increasing of nanoclay content resulted in higher density, compressive strength, and young modulus. The results of thermal conductivity and morphology revealed that presence of SM-MMT improved thermal insulating properties due to reduction of average cell size. Moreover, we found that the choice of non-solvent has a dramatic influence on the morphology/crystallinity of regenerated cellulose obtained following NaOH/water dissolution. The use of ethanol (in contrast to water) provided a large cell structure and amorphous regenerated material. The achievements from this study suggested that the prepared cellulose nanocomposite foam can be a potential alternative to commercial synthetic foams for packing food products. Additional studies would be needed to improve the properties to use these materials with moist foods. Keywords: Cellulose; Foam; Nanocomposite; NaOH solution; Surface-modified montmorillonite
