Variation of Basal Spacing in Used Bentonite to Make Nanocomposite Polymer PLA-Bentonit for Food Packaging

• Main Author: Emanuella, Natasha
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik (Rekayasa, enjinering dan kegiatan berkaitan)
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/38624
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Food packaging is one of the most important factor in food industry. Food packaging will. Currently, the most common material used for food packaging is plastic. However, conventional plastic will cause enviromental problem because it needs hundred years to be biodegraded. Biopolimer like polylactic acid (PLA) can be one of the alternatives that can be used as a biodegreadble food packaging. But, its mechanical property still need to be enhanced by creating nanocomposite polymer with bentonite. The bentonite need to be activated with surfactant in order to create larger basal spacing. There are 2 kinds of surfactant in the research, the Octadecylamine (20 mmol and 40 mmol), and Trimethyl Stearyl Chloride (20 mmol and 40 mmol). The purpose of this reseach is to determine the best surfactant that can create the largest basal spacing and the best property of the film. The process starts with the synthesis of lactide and the polymerization of lactide through Ring Opening Polymerization method. Bentonite that once was used to rafinate palm oil was treated with NaOCl and activated using surfactants. TSC 40 can open the largest basal spacing in bentonite which is 2,07 nm. After that, nanocomposite polymer PLA-bentonit was made through sonication method. The strongest mechanical properties is owned by film with TSC 40. ODA 40 film needs the shortest time for biodegradability. TSC 40 has the the lowest value for water vapour permeability. Lastly, film with TSC 40 shows the lowest percentage of water activity change in food packaging test.