Characterization of ripe empty fruit bunch (EFB) oil on the properties of starch-pla bio-based plastic

In recent decades, biodegradable and renewable polymers have intensively attracted attention due to their huge influence on cutting the human pollution. Blending of Poly (lactic acid) PLA with starch will increase the biodegradability of the polymers. In this study, ripe empty fruit bunch (EFB) oil was used as a compatibilizer to improve the thermoplastic starch (TPS) /poly lactic acid (PLA) blend. A different amount of ripe EFB oil (0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10g) and poly lactic acid (PLA) (0.05g and 0.1g) were used to produce the bio-based plastic with gelatinization process and dried at 40°C for 48 hours. The produced bio-based plastic was named as Starch-PLA-B and characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Universal Tensile Testing Machine, Water Solubility, Water Vapor Permeability (WVP) and Biodegradation test. The FTIR analysis shows the O-H bonding, C-H bonding and N-H bonding decreases as the composition of ripe EFB oil incorporated with the Starch-PLA-B matrix increases. The Starch-PLA-B have a tensile strength, Young’s Modulus and Percentage of elongation in the range of 1.8-7.95 MPa, 27.6-79.7Mpa and 19.8-52.7%, respectively. The solubility of the Starch-PLA-B is in the range of 6.25-20.83% when incorporated with ripe EFB oil. Water Vapor Permeability of the Starch-PLA-B is between 0.82×10-11 g/m.s.Pa and 2.00×10-11 g/m.s.Pa. The blend of TPS/PLA has proven to have a characteristic of bio-plastic as it is biodegradable when buried in soil.