Effect of filler and plastisizer on the mechanical properties of bioplastic cellulose from rice husk

Abstract

Rice husk is a product of the rice milling process. The high cellulose contents in rice husk that supports the use of it as raw material for bioplastic. This study aims to determine the effect of supporting polymer such as chitosan to the mechanical properties of bioplastic. The stages of this research were cellulose extraction from rice husk by maceration method, optimization of NaOCl concentration as a bleaching agent and printing of bioplastics with various treatments, namely cellulose-sorbitol (CS), cellulose-chitosan (CC) and cellulose-sorbitol-chitosan (CSC). Characterization was conducted by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Universal Testing Machine (UTM). The study showed that the optimum NaOCl concentration was 2.0% with a cellulose content of 59.2% in the form of white powder. The best bioplastic was bioplastic cellulose-sorbitol-chitosan (CSC) with the tensile strength of 0.060 Kgf/cm2 and the elongation of 4.75%. The peaks appeared in the FTIR spectrum were O-H, N-H and C-O at 3450.64, 1638.41, and 1087.76 cm-1, respectively. The interaction between cellulose from rice husk, filler addition, and plasticizer effected the quality of bioplastic.