Water absorption and soil burial degradation of Poly (lactic) acid (PLA)/Oil palm fibres (OPF) composite.

Abstract

: This research investigated the biodegradation of cellulose based PLA with oil palm composites on two sizes of fibre (0.25mm and 1.0mm). Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) was blended with oil palm fibre using twin screw extrusion technique.The use of oil palm can enhance the biodegradability of PLA since it is compostable under soil burial and easier absorb by water before disintegration for a few weeks. PLA was found to be biodegradable but rather slow in compostability unless at high temperature and humidity. In this study,the biodegradation rate was tested using soil burial and water absorption test. The samples were buried in soil and tested in aqueous water for specific duration at different pH. The higher the fibre content of 25%, the higher the weight loss and water absorption through soil burial and water absorption testing respectively . For soil burial testing, tsample PLA OPF 25% higher weight loss of 3.7% were found for sample fiber size 1.0mm as compared to 1.6% (0.25mm). While for water absorption testing, sample has different behaviour at pH 5.5, 7 and 8. The higher the fibre content, the higher water and soil burial weight loss. For bigger fibre sizes of1.0 mm, higher water absorption and mass loss reading were observed.