Development and characterization of plasticized polylactic acid biocomposite with durian skin fibre for food packaging application /
Disposable food packaging materials are mainly made from petroleum-based polymers, which give rise to landfill problems as they are not biodegradable. To overcome this issue, a biodegradable material such as polylactic acid (PLA) can be used as an alternative. The aim of this research was to develop...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Kuala Lumpur :
Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia,
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Click here to view 1st 24 pages of the thesis. Members can view fulltext at the specified PCs in the library. |
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| Summary: | Disposable food packaging materials are mainly made from petroleum-based polymers, which give rise to landfill problems as they are not biodegradable. To overcome this issue, a biodegradable material such as polylactic acid (PLA) can be used as an alternative. The aim of this research was to develop biodegradable food packaging containers made from a PLA biocomposite reinforced with durian skin fibre (DSF). However, since the application of PLA is restricted by its brittleness, therefore, epoxidized palm oil (EPO) was added as a plasticizer to improve the flexibility of PLA. A PLA biocomposite with 30 wt.% DSF and 5 wt.% EPO was extruded and injection moulded for testing and characterization. The effects of EPO on the chemical, mechanical, morphological, thermal, physical and biodegradation properties of the PLA/DSF biocomposite were studied. Then, life cycle assessment (LCA) was investigated to study the effect on environment. The C-O-C stretching from the oxirane vibrations in the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic analysis revealed the presence of EPO in the PLA/DSF biocomposite. The mechanical test proved that the incorporation of EPO enhanced the tensile, flexural and impact strength by approximately 6 to 37%. The elongation at break improved by up to 70%, showing that the EPO imparted flexibility to the PLA/DSF biocomposite. The SEM micrograph showed there was good compatibility between DSF and PLA and the ductile surface in the presence of EPO. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results showed that the degradation temperature for the PLA/DSF biocomposite was 289 °C, while for the PLA/DSF/EPO biocomposite was 300 °C, hence suggesting that EPO contributed to the heat resistance of the biocomposite. From the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results, it was found that the addition of EPO had a plasticizing effect, where it reduced the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the biocomposite from 61 to 59 °C. The crystallization temperature (Tc) was also reduced from 125 to 105 °C, indicating that EPO accelerated the crystallization of the PLA/DSF biocomposite. The storage modulus of the plasticized PLA/DSF biocomposite was lowered as it become less stiff. A soil burial test indicated that the PLA/DSF/EPO biocomposite possessed a faster biodegradation rate and was almost fully biodegraded at 83% at 90 days. This could have been due to the high level of water absorption with 14% and changes to the dimensional stability of the biocomposite as the water penetrated into the PLA matrix. A life cycle assessment indicated that the PLA/DSF biocomposite had a major negative impact on the environment in terms of the global warming potential (GWP) about 198 kg CO2 eq. The other impacts on the environment were with regard to the eutrophication potential (EP), acidification potential (AP) and ozone layer depletion potential (ODP) with impact score 9 kg P eq., 0.7 kg SO2 eq. and 1 x 1011 kg CFC-11 eq., respectively. These impacts were mainly brought about by the usage of electricity, which contributed to the emission of CO2. However, the PLA/DSF/EPO biocomposite had lower negative impacts because EPO improved the workability and processability of the biocomposite, and hence, reduced the amount of energy required for production. It can be concluded that the cradle-to-cradle plasticized PLA/DSF biocomposite can be a potential biodegradable food packaging material as it has favourable properties and produces no waste. |
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| Physical Description: | xv, 116 leaves : colour illustrations ; 30cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-113). |