Thermal, Physical And Environmental Friendly Characteristics Of Bio Based Composites Derived From Sugarcane Fibre And Potato Starch

Adam, Nur Wardah (2018) Thermal, Physical And Environmental Friendly Characteristics Of Bio Based Composites Derived From Sugarcane Fibre And Potato Starch. Project Report. UTeM, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

In recent, development of eco-friendly product have been great progress based on renewable materials due to the problem of non-biodegradable waste particularly the disposable product that gives impact in environmental problems and human being. Hence, to tackle the environmental and sustainability issues, this century has focused greater achievement in green technology in the field of science materials through development of bio-composite. Bio polymer derived from renewable resources is one of the promising material that can be an alternative in replacing petroleum based polymer since it is readily biodegradable and more environmentally material. Starch has been one of the examples of bio-polymer among the biodegradable polymer due to their advantage of abundant resources, low cost, biodegradability and renewability. However, there is limitation on starch usage in commercial plastic production in industry where starch based is poor mechanical properties and water sensitive. Sugarcane bagasse produced from the extraction of sugarcane juice has been the large agriculture waste nowadays. This waste has potential application to be used as reinforcement material for producing bio based composite and also can be an alternative way for the waste management especially in agricultural waste. In this study, several modification methods were employed to enhance the properties of Thermoplastic Potato Starch (TPPS) by incorporating it with different amount of sugarcane fibre (1, 5, 10, 15 wt.%). Consequently, TPPS/sugarcane fibre composites were developed by using dry mixing at 1200 rpm for 6 min and hot press method at 145°C for 1 hour by maintaining the composition of starch and glycerol at ratio 80:20 respectively. The finding shows that the thermal properties of the composite increase for the 15wt.% of sugarcane fibre loading. In terms of physical properties, the addition of sugarcane fibre content from 0 to 15wt.% has decreased the water affinity of the composite. This finding shows that TPPS/SF composite has good resistance of moisture and water and also has high dimensional stability. Furthermore, the influence of sugarcane fibre at varying content (0 to 15wt.%) on the biodegradation characteristic of the TPPS/SF composite were investigated. After soil burial test for 2 and 4 weeks, TPPS/SF composite resulted of the lowest weight loss. It is also evident from the soil burial results that the biodegradation of the composites were enhanced after 4 weeks of burial than 2 weeks with the addition of sugarcane fibre. Overall, the finding from this study presents that the Thermoplastic Potato Starch (TPPS) reinforced sugarcane fibre composite has shown improved in the drawback of the origin material. In conclusion, this material can be commercialized due to the low cost, abundant resources and renewable in the effort of environmental preservation compare to conventional material. Hence, biopolymer composite derived from natural resources have potential application such as plastic packaging and for short life product. In addition, natural waste resources can be utilize as an alternative way to develop composite that are eco-friendly and can contribute towards better waste management.

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