Mechanical Characteristics Of Biodegradable Plastic Using Elephant Foot Yam (Amorphophallus Paeoniifolius Var. Hortensis) And Glycerol

Petroleum-based plastics currently dominate the packaging industry. Utilization of native Indonesian commodities into biodegradable plastics is expected to be an alternative to mitigate negative impact of petroleum plastics. Exploration of local commodities as biodegradable plastic material needs to be done. One of the indigenous commodities that can be used to make bio-plastics is tuber crops of Amorphophallus genus. This research aims to produce bio-plastics with elephant foot yam as a raw material with the addition of glycerol. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of adding glycerol to elephant foot yam starch on mechanical properties of biodegradable plastics produced. The first phase of the research was conducted to determine the percent glycerol required to form good plastic from tuber starch. The results obtained were used in the second phase of the work to further optimize the glycerol concentration. In the first phase, the best result showed a percentage composition of 90:10 with a tensile strength of 5.43 MPa, modulus elongation 18.47 MPa and 30% elongation. Further optimization showed a value 94:6 to be the best suited for getting a product with tensile strength, modulus Elongation and elongation of 14 MPa, 60.19 MPa and 23.33%, respectively.