Identification of the degradation time of plastic sheets from Malaysian banana (Musa Acuminata)

Abstract

Introduction. The use of synthetic plastic has increased in recent years, for food packaging, objects of a different nature among others, which has generated large amounts of waste that end up in the ecosystem generating great impacts on the environment, It is for this reason that this research has been carried out in order to obtain a polymer that has the same applications and that degrades easily. Target. The degradation time of the plastic from the Malaysian banana in the environment was identified. Methodology. The physical chemical and microbiological characterization was carried out, of both the raw material and its starch, obtained through physical separation processes, It is worth mentioning that both for obtaining starch (10.26%R) and biodegradable plastic, the 2k factorial design was used with 4 treatments and 4 repetitions each, subsequently proceeded to the synthesis of biodegradable plastic. Results. It was determined that treatment 3 is the most suitable with 5.88 g of starch and 4.94% of glycerin, keeping the amount of solvent and acetic acid constant, the biodegradable polymer sheets obtained were dried in a tray dryer, same that presented a slightly transparent brown coloration with a thickness of 0.2 mm on average. Conclution. Physical-mechanical tests were carried out, determining that treatment 3 is the most suitable with 45.69% elongation, and 35.32% degradation in 15 days.