The brittleness of polylactic acid (PLA) has always limited its usage, although it has good mechanical strength. In this study, flexibility of PLA/starch (PSt) blend was enhanced using epoxidized palm oil (EPO) as the green plasticizer. The PLA/starch/EPO (PSE) blends were prepared while using the solution casting method by fixing the content of starch and varying ratio of EPO. The thermal properties, such as glass transition temperature (Tg), melting temperature (Tm), and crystallization temperature (Tcc) were decreased by increasing the amount of EPO into PSt, indicating that EPO increases the chain mobility. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that thermal degradation resistance of PSE was higher when compared to PSt. The mechanical testing revealed that EPO at all contents improved the mechanical properties, such as increment of the elongation-at-break and impact strength. Whereas, dynamic mechanical analysis showed that the addition of filler into PLA decreased the storage modulus of PLA. The carbonyl group of the aliphatic ester remained the same in the PSE blends. The morphological study verified the ductility of PSE blends surface when compared to the brittle surface of PSt. As for the soil burial tests, EPO accelerated the degradation of blends. From these results, it can be concluded that EPO improved the flexibility of PLA blends.

Petroleum based packaging materials has raised environmental concerns due to its non-environmentally friendly degradation. Conventional plastic takes a long time to degrade and remains in the waste dump. Since then, attention to biodegradable plastics has been heightened for its greener degradation. Polylactic acid (PLA) is a renewable polymer with mechanical properties comparable to those of the conventional plastics. This study aims to improve the mechanical and thermal properties and reducing the cost of PLA production by blending PLA with starch as filler and epoxy palm oil (EPO) as plasticizer. The PLA/starch/EPO blends were prepared by solution casting and melt blending methods and properties of the blends were studied and characterized. The thermal properties of plasticized PLA/starch were investigated by Differential Screening Calorimetry (DSC) followed by Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FT-IR) in order to observe the degree of interaction of plasticized PLA/starch blend. The mechanical properties were investigated using Universal Tensile Test

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