Development of bioplastic from green algae / Shahida Saad

Algae are a group of organisms that are mostly aquatic, photosynthetic, and nucleus-bearing, but lack the real roots, stems, leaves, and specialised multicellular reproductive systems found within plants. It can be found in many sorts of water, including salt, fresh, and brackish (a mix of salt and fresh water). Blue-green algae (BGA), green algae, red algae, and brown algae are the four types of algae. Besides, these algae produce gigantic molecules called polymers that can be used to make bioplastics. This can become the opportunity to alter the ecosystem which becomes worst because of pollution, especially plastic pollution. Plastic pollution can become a threat to sea life, the environment, and human health. This issue has become a responsibility for us to find the solution for it.So, a decision was made to reduce the consumption of petroleum-based plastic by establishing an appropriate blend type to make algae bioplastics called algae-starch bioplastics in the presence of plasticizers such as sorbitol and glycerol in this research. The algae-starch bioplastics samples were then tested to a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) test as well as a water absorption test. With the FTIR test different types of functional groups in the algae-starch bioplastics that were created using both methods were able to be detected. Then, from the water absorption test, an observation could be done on how the water absorption of algae-starch bioplastics decreased as the amount of corn starch added increased.