Investigation on the effects of biodegradability of tapioca starch doped into palm oil to produce bioplastic

This project research presents the effects biodegradability of tapioca starch doped into palm oil to produce bioplastic. The main objective of this study is to determine the optimum ratio the composition of tapioca starch doped into palm oil to produce bioplastic and to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of biodegradability of bioplastic. The samples of bioplastic based on tapioca starch doped into palm oil was prepared by mixing different composition ratios of tapioca starch which are 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 (wt/wt%) doped into 30% (wt/wt%) palm oil. The effects of different composition ratios were tested on physical properties in terms of density test, thickness test and biodegradability test. Physical test was exhibited density decreases with increasing ratio of tapioca starch with maximum density at 1.30 g/cm³. It was shown that a lower ratio of palm oil produces 0.316±0.01 mm thickness of bioplastics. Major loss of weight only can be seen after 29-30°C was exposed the bioplastics samples under UV exposure. Bioplastics based on tapioca starch were able to degrade at 100% after 7 days up to 2.5 (wt/wt%). It can be concluded that the composition ratio of tapioca starch at 2.5 (wt/wt%) is the optimum ratio to be applied for bioplastics.