The effect of Red Palm Oil concentration towards characteristics and biodegradability of PLA-Zinc film

Polylactic acid (PLA) film with antimicrobial agents which is zinc oxide (ZnO) is a common films that been used in the film packaging. Recently, the used of the plastic food packaging cause the environmental problem. This study were conducted to determine the characteristics and biodegradability of the PLA-Zinc film. The film is prepared by using solvent casting method with addition of RPO as a plasticizer. RPO amount gives impact towards the thickness of the films where higher thickness is formed when the RPO amount are higher. For the moisture content, as the amount of RPO is increase the moisture content in each films is decreased. FT-IR obtained obviously changes at peak 1748 cm-1 which representing ester group which are C=O stretching bonds. Combination 0.25RPO with PLA gave highest tensile value and lowest percentage of elongation at break. The solubility PLA with ZnO increase drastically but when added RPO, it become more decreases. These results suggest that the PLA/ZnO/RPO films could be used to replace non-biodegradable plastic.