Improved bioplastic properties of modified cassava starch (Manihot Esculenta) with graphene oxide

The current problems plastic facing nowadays is it mainly derived from petroleum based which is not environmental friendly, high cost and also hard to degrade in nature. Cassava starch was used in order to replace the current materials as cassava starch is low cost and also environmental friendly. The objective of this study is to prepared cassava starch enforced graphene oxide and also to characterize the mechanical, morphology and structure of the bioplastic. In this study, bioplastic made from cassava starch (CP) modified with graphene oxide in different concentrations (1%,3% ,6% ,and 10%) were prepared as preliminary study for future potential food packaging. Several analysis were carried out such as the mechanical properties exhibit an increase value of tensile strength and young modulus. There were also an improvement of water resistance for the modified bioplastic. Moreover, the degradation of the prepared CS/GO bioplastic shows the lowest rate of degradation of C/10% GO compared to pure cassava bioplastic that lost nearly 50% of its initial weight. Fungus observation under optical microscope also showed that C/GO of 6% and 10% concentration can withstand against the fungus present up to 4 weeks. In conclusion, with the exploration of the mixture cassava with graphene oxide, the improvement of the bioplastic properties could be expected and further investigation on this study is highly suggested to explore the properties.