BIOCOMPOSITE CHARACTERIZATION OF BAGASSE STARCH DERIVED FROM CASSAVA REINFORCED BY ACETYLATED BAMBOO CELLULOSE AND PLASTICIZED BY EPOXIDIZED WASTE COOKING OIL

Reinforcing starch-based biocomposites have been investigated by many agents. This paper observes the characterization of cassava solid waste/bagasse starch (BS) reinforced bamboo cellulose micro fiber (MFC) and epoxidized waste cooking oil (EWCO). Previous research prepared EWCO through acetic acid-hydrogen peroxide process. The EWCO and glycerol were used as a plasticizer and the lime juice as the crosslinker. The products have been characterized tensile strength by texture analyzer, qualitative structural by FTIR, thermal by differential scanning calorimetric, and crystalline structure by spectra of XRD. The highest tensile strength of 25.8 MPa was achieved at the composition of MFC 1 %-w/w, glycerol of 0.25 %-v/v, lime juice of 0.125 %-v/v, and EWCO of 0.125 %-v/v. The products confirmed the disappearance of the acetyl moiety at 1732 cm-1 by FTIR, the diffraction peak at 15°, 17°, and 23° for neat BS, while the peaks disappeared at a range of 15°-23° for acetylated BS. The peak at 16.5° and 22.5° for cellulose I of neat and acetylated MFC. The weight loss and degradation temperature during thermal analysis were achieved about 22% and 290 °C, respectively. Glass transition temperature of products revealed decrease excluding the mixed of acetylated MFC, neat BS, and acetylated BS with an increase up to 117 °C.