Characterization of polyethylene starch based film incorporated with crude palm oil and aloe vera gel

Fully degradable plastic has not get positive industrial application until today and had lead researchers to focus on developing partially biodegradable plastic. The objective of this paper was to determine the impact of different plasticizer (glycerol, aloe vera gel, crude palm oil) towards the characteristics of LDPE starch films. The effectiveness of crude palm oil is uncertain when incorporated into synthetic polymer, while aloe vera gel in polyethylene product is still questionable. The films were prepared via melt blending method before being transferred to hot press to obtained a flat sheet film. Based on FTIR result, the addition of aloe vera gel has no visible effect on the functional group of LDPE while incorporation of crude palm oil into the film mixture has helped the intermolecular bonding between thermoplastic starch and LDPE. From TGA analysis, the best processing temperature for this thermoplastic starch film is below 200°C. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis has shown that the crystallinity of PE film has been disrupted by the presence of intermolecular hydrogen bonding between PE and other materials. As a conclusion, aloe vera gel and crude palm oil has potential to be one of the plasticizer in film packaging