Bio-Plastics - An Alternative to Petroleum Based Plastics
P.Prasteen1,Y.Thushyanthy2,T.Mikunthan3,M.Prabhaharan4
Citation :P.Prasteen,Y.Thushyanthy,T.Mikunthan,M.Prabhaharan, Bio-Plastics - An Alternative to Petroleum Based Plastics, International Journal of Research Studies in Agricultural Sciences 2018, 4(1) : 1-7
The environmental crises arising from the use of petroleum based non-degradable plastics led the globe to find alternatives. Biomaterial based plastic is one such alternative. This study aimed to produce biomaterial based plastic from corn starch (Cs) and gelatin (Ge) with the addition of glycerol (Gy) and mixture of vinegar and water and to determine the effect of the amount of Gy on the properties of plastics produced using Cs and Ge separately. For this purpose, six treatments were carried out by mixing Cs and Ge separately with Gy at three weight ratios (Cs:Gy and Ge:Gy), keeping the amount of Cs or Ge constant, while changing the amount of Gy such as; 1:4, 1:3 and 1:2. For each treatment, vinegar and water mixture (1:12, v/v) was added at the weight ratio of 4:13 (Cs or Ge: water and vinegar mixture). After mixing all ingredients, the mixture was heated while stirring at 80°C until a semisolid mass is formed. Then the mass was spread out as a thin sheet on an aluminum foil and dried at 80°C for 24 h in a hot air oven. The properties of produced plastic such as absorption of moisture, firmness, burning test, maximum elongation and thermoplastic natures of the produced plastics were tested using standard methods. Moisture absorption was determined by the percentage of weight change by moisture absorption by allowing the dried sheets to expose to the environment for six hours. The sheet produced by Cs and Gy with the ratio of 1:4 absorbed highest percentage of moisture (1.22 - 2.14%) with time compared to other five treatments (0.03 - 0.93%). Anyhow, there were no significant differences in the moisture absorption property among these six treatments. All the treatments with Gs and Gy showed a dark orange to yellow color flame with increasing speed of burning with increasing the amount of Gy. Among the six treatments, the treatment with Ge and Gy at the ratio of 1:4 exhibited highest firmness, while Cs: Gy at the ratio of 1:4 exhibited the lowest firmness, which could be attributed to the presence of gelatin. Further, the above two treatments showed maximum elongation, however, these are not significant (p>0.05) between them. Thermo-plastic nature was not retained by the sheets produced by all treatments up to 120 °C. This study clearly revealed that Gy act as plasticizer; however, this plastic nature is influenced by other compounds as well. Furthermore, all sheets produced using Ge and Gy showed more flexibility compared to the Cs and Gy treatments because of the more flexible nature of the gelatin. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a possibility to produce plastics from the above biomaterials as the raw materials and this will help mitigate the environmental issues. Further research need to be carried out to determine their durability and marketability.