Rubberized glutardialdehyde modified starch plasticized with ethylene glycol

Abstract

In the current past few decades, self-awareness towards the usage of biodegradable material in our daily life is still low among us. The dependence of the people towards the petroleum-based plastic are rapidly rises in the urbanization of industrial, agriculture, domestic, pharmaceutical activities and others. Thermoplastic starch is biodegradable material to be arising up recently due to its attribute as environment friendly and promote sustainable development. In this study, corn starch was used as the raw material where the ethylene glycol was the plasticizer and the glutardialdehyde is the cross-linkage agent. The natural rubber is added in order to make the modified starch to increase the water resistance of the starch. The rubber content 0%, 20% and 50% is acted as the parameter for this study. The higher percentage of rubber inclusion has lowered value of MOR and MOE. The MOE for 50% rubber content sample is 64.747 N/mm2 in tensile test. The MOR for 50% rubber content sample is 640.652 N/mm2 which is relatively lower than the 20% rubber content sample with 851.376 N/mm2. Based on the overall result, the physical characteristic shows higher rubber content has the high retention of water. However, the starch polymers are relatively unusable under extreme moisture condition as reflected in water absorption test.