Mechanical And Thermal Properties Of Thermoplastic Cassava Starch/Beeswax Reinforced With Sugarcane Bagasse Fiber

Abdul Rahman, Amirul Hazim (2019) Mechanical And Thermal Properties Of Thermoplastic Cassava Starch/Beeswax Reinforced With Sugarcane Bagasse Fiber. Project Report. UTeM, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

In this 21st century, the earth has been polluted severely by the waste of plastic that can be found in the land or ocean. Due to the increasing of synthetic plastic usage, the demand in biodegradable material has been an important issue. Hence, a variety of biodegradable materials were made according to the issues. With today’s advanced technology and knowledge, high awareness should be implemented on reserving natural resources and reducing waste by developing more environmentally friendly material. Amongst many biopolymer materials, starch has been recognized as a complete biodegradable material that can be produced by various of plants, which is one of the richest resources that are renewable, biodegradability, and low cost. However, one of the drawbacks of starch is the hydrophilic properties that will absorb moisture from surrounding and interrupts the thermal and mechanical properties of the composite, which limits its potential application. The sugarcane bagasse fiber (SBF) is regarded as one of the agricultural wastes after the sugarcane juice is extracted to be made into sugar and to be consumed. The SBF usually used as natural reinforcement for natural composites due to its natural properties that is capable to degrade alongside the natural matrix material. In order to improve the weaknesses of this material, modification was done through the incorporation of both materials together by mixing the mixture until homogenous and fabricating the material using hot compressing moulding. In this study, the modification is focused on developing thermoplastic cassava starch reinforced with beeswax (TPCS) and sugarcane bagasse fiber (SBF) composite and to study the thermal and mechanical properties. Through the modification, it was found that the mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, and impact strength have improved significantly with 20 weight % (wt%) of SBF loading into the TPCS. The findings of the tensile properties show that the incorporation of the SBF to the TPCS was proven to increase the tensile strength at a certain percentage. In relation to this finding, the impact and the flexural properties have shown a similar trend. As for the thermal properties based on TGA and DTG shows that higher SBF loading results in more thermally stable material due to the starch and fiber ratio of the samples. It was found that the incorporation of SBF into TPCS have generally improved the properties of the material in terms of thermal and mechanical. The material developed have the potential to be commercialized for packaging and single use product, this is due to the short life of the material when exposed to decomposition. There are a few improvements that could be studied for further enhance the properties of the material and to increase the potential of the material in terms of mechanical and thermal properties and in terms of commercialization of the material.

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