Study of renewable silica powder influence in the preparation of bioplastics from corn and potato starch

Abstract

In the present study, 0.5–1.5% silica powder, from sugarcane waste ash, was incorporated into corn and potato starch bioplastics doped with sodium silicate solution to improve the properties of elongation at break and increase the thermal resistance of the bioplastics. The starch-based bioplastics were produced by casting and characterized by color analyses, transparency, opacity apparent, humidity, thickness, tensile strength, elongation at break, FTIR, DSC, SEM, and biodegradation assay. The addition of 0.5% of silica powder improved the elongation at break of the corn starch-based bioplastics. The sample CS5-P0.5 presented the highest percentage of elongation at the break among the studied samples, increased from 59.2% (without silica powder) to 78.9% (with silica powder). For potato starch bioplastic the addition of 0.5% of silica powder did not improve elongation at break but increased the thermal resistance. Increased until 17 °C for PS5-P0.5 sample and until 11 °C for PS7.5-P0.5 sample. The bioplastics of potato starch were biodegraded in 5 days, and those of corn starch took almost 40 days. Silica powder inhibited the growth of fungi in starch bioplastics.