The role of various plastisizers and fillers additions in improving tensile strength of starch-based bioplastics: A mini review

Abstract

The general public uses plastic extensively, particularly in food packaging. Plastic raw materials are generally petroleum derivatives with advantages such as high tensile strength, low cost, lightweight, ease of manufacture, and application. However, there are other disadvantages to plastic, which is not easily biodegradable. As a result, researchers have expressed a strong desire to develop biodegradable plastics in order to reduce the accumulation of non-biodegradable plastics in the environment. One of the candidates for producing bioplastic using natural resources is biodegradable plastics. Bioplastics based on starch are a common material used in the production of bioplastics. However, because bioplastics have lower tensile properties than conventional plastics, fillers are used to increase the strength of bioplastics. Fillers are used to reduce plastic cost, shrinkage during the setting process, and to improve tensile strength and hardness. As a result, the tensile and morphology of several starch-based biodegradable plastics with chitosan, CMC fiber, and clay as fillers will be reported in this review. According to our mini-review, sorbitol and CMC are very good plasticizers for starch-based bioplastics, and CMC has a higher crystallinity form, promoting greater interaction between the cellulose chains and starch-based matrix.

Biodegradable Plastics from Mango Seed Starch for Sustainable Food Packaging‐Effect of Citric Acid and Fillers

“…In general, the starch-based bioplastics show lesser strength [29] and it was reported that the strength of corn starch bioplastics was 2.57 MPa [30] and a relatively a higher strength of 8.43 MPa was achieved with 20 % CMC addition, [29] 13.42 MPa in the case of 30 % sorbitol addition. [31] Tan et al reported an optimum strength of 5.19 MPa and an elongation of 44.6 % in corn starch bioplastic.…”

The Impact of Chitosan Incorporation on the Mechanical Characteristics of Biodegradable Packaging based on PLA/PCL Blend

“…Apart from that, the more PLA the composition, the better the biodegradation process will occur, this shows that PLA has good degradability. Meanwhile, using more PCL composition than PLA will give an irregular degradation percentage along with the addition of chitosan [12]. PLA and PCL are biopolymers that have the ability to degrade biologically in the soil because they are obtained from renewable sources.…”

Properties of active packaging of PLA-PCL film integrated with chitosan as an antibacterial agent and syzygium cumini seed extract as an antioxidant agent

“…The active packaging production process based on PLA is easier because it employs commercial tools. However, PLA has a drawback for active packaging applications due to its low water vapor barrier properties, rigidity, and heat distortion temperatures ([ 5 , 6 ]). Combining PLA with other biocompatible aliphatic polyesters, such as poly ε-caprolactone (PCL), is expected to compensate for these drawbacks.…”