BIODEGRADABILITY EFFECTS ON THE PHA/NFC NANOCOMPOSITE

Authors

  • A. W. A. Razak Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang.
  • S. S. Jamari Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang.

Abstract


Plastic has been harmful to the environment and lead to endless pollution due to years of disposal. However, its usage is undeniable hence an alternative to using biodegradable plastic replacing regular plastic is highly recommended. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) have all characteristics needed as a biodegradable plastic. However, it exhibits brittleness, poor thermo- mechanical properties, and low heat distortion temperature. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of nanofibril cellulose (NFC) addition on the biodegradability properties of PHA composite. The biodegradation properties were investigated using a soil burial test. The samples were incubated for 7, 14, 21, and 28 days under control conditions, and weight loss for both characterizations was recorded to identify the effectiveness of NFC in the PHA composite. The results shows that the weight of samples was decreased with an increase in incubation time, while its percentage of weight loss was increased as the hydrophilicity of NFC caused the sample to degrade at a higher rate. Although PHA/NFC samples were having a lag time at the earliest stage, it is then degraded better than pure PHA after 21 days. In conclusion, the addition of NFC has greatly improved PHA properties where PHA/NFC 8% is the most sufficient nanocomposite to turn PHA into promising biodegradable plastics and safe for daily usage.

Downloads

Published

2023-12-31

How to Cite

A. W. A. Razak, & S. S. Jamari. (2023). BIODEGRADABILITY EFFECTS ON THE PHA/NFC NANOCOMPOSITE. Journal of Engineering and Technology (JET), 14(2). Retrieved from https://jet.utem.edu.my/jet/article/view/6476

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 2 (2023): JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of Engineering and Technology (JET)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Thank you for your interest in submitting your manuscript to the Journal of Engineering and Technology (JET).

JET publishes only original works. Manuscripts must not be previously published or under consideration by any other publications. Papers published in JET may not be published again in whole or in part without permission. Please review these guidelines for researching, writing, formatting and submitting your manuscript. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Those submitting manuscripts should be carefully checked to ensure that all works contributed to the manuscript are acknowledged. The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. Manuscript should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors using Transfer of Copyright form.