Water Reduction of Biodegradable Plastic From Bagasse By-Product With Synergistic Effect of Graphene Oxide Reinforcement and Citric Acid Crosslinking

Abstract

In today’s world, plastics are vital as they are used in a wide range of applications although packaging is the most prevalent. Most of the plastics that are used for packaging applications are derived from petrochemicals. These plastics meet most of the requirements for good packing applications. However, they are not completely biodegradable. This consequently pollutes the environment. As a result, biodegradable plastics have emerged as an alternative to conventional plastics. Cellulose is one of the potential materials that are used for making biodegradable plastics. However, making plastic from cellulose causes deforestation. In this work, plastic was produced from cellulose bagasse, which is an industrial waste. Since bagasse is an industrial by-product, it causes neither deforestation nor scarcity of food. However, the plastic made from bagasse showed high water absorption and low tensile strength. To overcome this problem, the plastic, which is made from bagasse, was reinforced with various concentrations of graphene oxide (GO) and crosslinked with various concentrations of citric acid (CA) at different crosslinking temperatures and crosslinking times. The water absorption and biodegradability of the films were studied. Furthermore, the synergistic effect of crosslinking and reinforcement was used to improve the interfacial bonding between the two. The water absorption of pure cellulose, cellulose crosslinked with 10% CA, cellulose reinforced with 15% GO reinforcement, and synergy of 10% CA crosslinking and 15% GO reinforcement at crosslinking temperature of 130°C and crosslinking time of 25 min was found to be 99.02%, 56.4%, 44.275%, and 36.78%, respectively. The biodegradability at the optimal values of crosslinker concentration, crosslinking time, and crosslinking temperature of pure cellulose of bagasse, 10% CA crosslinked bagasse, and 10% CA crosslinked bagasse with 15% GO reinforcement in 30 days were found to be 94.0397%, 56.91%, and 40.81%, respectively. The result of the study shows that water-resistant biodegradable plastic can be produced with the synergistic effect of crosslinking and reinforcement.