Abstract
Polypropylene (PP)/plasticized cassava starch (PCS) blended with and without compatibilizer (polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA)) via melt blending were prepared for soil burial which lasted for 90 days. Plasticized starch loadings of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 wt.% were used, while pp-g-ma was used at 10 wt.% based on starch weight. The PP/PCS and PP/PCS/PP-G-MA blends were evaluated for their tensile properties. It was observed that the tensile strength, elongation at break, and young’s modulus decreased with increases in soil burial time as well as starch content for PP/PCS blends. Similar treads for the tensile properties were observed for PP/PCS/PP-g-MA, but with higher properties as compared to uncompatibilized blends. However, the tensile properties for both PP/PCS and PP/PCS/PP-g-Ma decrease with increases in starch loading and also as the burial period progressed.
Highlights
IntroductionThe plastics industry has worked tremendously on the synthesis, formulation, and utilization of durable materials that are more adapted to their specific uses
Throughout the world, over 120 million tons of plastics are being utilized annually
Cassava starch was extracted from cassava roofs obtained from the eastern part of Nigeria according to the method adopted by Integrated Cassava Project (ICP) of the Federal Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development, Nigeria
Summary
The plastics industry has worked tremendously on the synthesis, formulation, and utilization of durable materials that are more adapted to their specific uses. Among these applications, over 30 million tons of these plastics are used for packaging purposes such as waste bags, agricultural mulch films or continually [1]. Development of biodegradable plastics is considered as the best approach to solve solid waste problems. This awareness gave rise to an interest in the development of polymers that will fragment or degrade into benign by-products under composting environments [3]. The difference between the compatibilized plasticized and plasticized blends was discussed in this study
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