PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATIONS OF STARCH–(POLYETHYLENE-B- POLY(ETHYLENE GLYCOL)) COMPLEXES AS NATURALLY DEGRADABLE PLASTIC MATERIALS

• Main Author: Salsabila, Hana
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Kimia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/75365
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Due to high usage of polyethylene (PE) and its difficulty to degrade naturally, accumulation of plastic waste is inevitable. A lot of researches have been reported to reduce the usage of polyethylene and to increase the degradability of polyethylene-based products. For example, starch was used as an easily degradable biopolymer. However, due to different characteristic of those two polymers, composites of polyethylene and starch are hard to mix homogeneously. This can be solved as starch has the ability to form an inclusion complex with hydrophobic molecules, including polyethylene. This research aimed to take the advantage of starch’s unique ability by preparing starch–(polyethylene-b-poly(ethylene glycol)) (starch–(PE-b- PEG)) as naturally easily degraded plastic material. The inclusion complex based plastic films were prepared by dispersing starch in water at 85 oC until gelatinized, followed by addition of PE-b-PEG with Mn of ~2,250 g/mol (1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 9%, 11%, and 13% w/w based on starch weight) at the same temperature for 2 hours, mixing with additional polymer (xanthan gum, gum arabic, or guar gum) for 20 minutes, and mixing with plasticizer for 15 minutes. The most suitable plasticizer was glycerol 20%, while the amount of guest molecule that was promising to be developed further was 5%, 7%, and 9% due to their flattest form. The addition of other polymers with the amount of 2%, 10%, and 20% (w/w based on total weight of the film) showed that guar gum tended to improve the tensile strength of the film, while gum arabic tended to improve the elongation. The soil burial test conducted for 4, 7, and 14 days showed that films consisted of 5%, 7%, and 9% guest molecule had a mass loss of 24.95%– 30.02% (4 days), 35.25%–38.09% (7 days), and 42,48%–48,82% (14 days). These data shows that starch–(PE-b-PEG)-based plastic films had a potential as naturally degradable materials.