Greener Journal of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 51-56, 2020
Greener Journal of Agricultural Sciences
Vol. 10(1), pp. 51-56, 2020
ISSN: 2276-7770;
Copyright ©2020, the copyright of this article is retained by the author(s)
http://gjournals.org/GJAS
Effects of Copolymer blends in the
Production and Characterisation of
Biodegradable polymer from Agricultural
Product-Using Cassava Starch (Manihort
Species) as case studies
Duduyemi, Oladejo; Ikusedun Mojibayo; Shonaike G.O.;
Olodu Ogochukwu E; Babatunde.B. H; Adaran Adekunle
S.; Moradeyo O .T; Ajise B.E.; Sadiq S.K Luji; Omotola. O.
Department of Chemical and Polymer Engineering, Lagos State University
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Article No.: 01312017
Type: Research
High demands and diverse applications of plastic materials had contributed
immensely to the social-economic growth of the nations especially in the
packaging industry. However, plastics have been a major contributor to the world's
present garbage problems especially from the packaging sector of the industry.
The menace was traced to non-degradable characteristics of LDPE and HDPP
resins often used in the productions, hence, the need for biodegradable polymer
blends.;l Co-polymer from Cassava (Manihort Species) starch with glycerol,
vinegar and water was formulated to produce slurry, which was heated to about
1000c to form gel, dried to about 12% moisture. The resulting chips were weighed
in the ratios of 1:0, 1:3, 1:1, 3:1, 0:1 (wt/wt %) to pure low density polyethylene
(LDPE) resins. Each formulation of mixture was extruded at 1600C to produce
polymer blends (plastics) in batches. The samples were chipped into same
dimensions of 2.0mm thickness, 15.00mm width and 30.00mm and characterized.
The mechanical properties of the polymer blends were found to decrease as the
Copolymer increased. The best Young modulus was achieved with pure LDPE
extrudate having 0.45±0.005 (109N/m,Gpa) and the least in the pure copolymer
0.11±0.005 (109N/m,Gpa). The homogenous dope exhibited compatibility of
cassava starch with polyethylene and it took up to 72 hr for each of the samples to
cure completely.
Accepted: 01/02/2020
Published: 25/02/2020
*Corresponding Author
Ikusedun Mojibayo
E-mail: mojibayoikusedun@
yahoo.com
Keywords: Polymerisation;
Fermentation; dope;
depolymerisation; biodegradable
blends