Preliminary Study of Synthesis and Characterization of Biodegradable Avocado Seed Starch-Chitosan Plastic with Glycerol Plasticizer

Abstract

Mechanical characteristics were studied for biodegradable plastics derived from avocado seed starch, emphasizing the influence of chitosan and glycerol. The extraction of starch from avocado seeds began with filtration. Different amounts of glycerol and chitosan were added to the extracted starch of up to 3% by weight. Because this method just uses distilled water instead of chemical chemicals, it was highly environmentally friendly. Tensile testing was done on the generated samples to assess the mechanical properties of this bioplastic; the results indicated that the samples’ elongation rates ranged from 21.9% to 134.7%. In spite of this, the bioplastic showed a comparatively low tensile strength, peaking at 3,381 MPa when chitosan-starch ratio was 2:1 and 1.5% glycerol was added.