Synthesis And Mechanical Properties Of Production Bioplastics Using Starch From Zea Mays L. With Different Amount Of Glycerol

The production of bioplastics from a natural resource like corn starch is more relevant as it requires the low cost, easy to get the raw materials and also easy to extract its starch. In this production of bioplastics, starch form Zea Mays L (lagung) has been used. The purposes of this study are to produce biodegradable plastic from the corn starch as a substitute for the conventional plastic and to analyse the mechanical properties of the bioplastic such as biodegradability test, water absorption test, solubility test, and shelf life test. Corn starch is extremely high in starch content which is 25.7g of starch or 18.2% by weight. The chemical component of corn starch usually made up of 27% amylose and 73% amylopectin. In this experiment, the bioplastic production used same amount of corn starch which was 5g but with different amount of glycerol for each of sample been investigated. Bioplastic with the highest glycerol level showed a very satisfactory results in water absorption, and solubility in water. The bioplastic with the highest glycerol also showed longer shelf life as the growth of fungi took a long time to grow. The evaluation of the mechanical properties showed that the bioplastic containing 5g:1 ml of com starch: glycerol showed that it took longer time to fully degraded in soil which was 25days. Keywords: Conventional Plastics, Bioplastics, Corn starch, Glycerol.