PLA/metal oxide biocomposites for antimicrobial packaging application
Muhammad Ghozali, Sri Fahmiati, Evi Triwulandari, Witta Kartika Restu, Donny Farhan, Marli Wulansari, Widya Fatrıasarı
Abstract
The effects of metal oxide addition in polylactic acid (PLA) film were investigated in this study. PLA/Metal Oxide biocomposites were prepared by solvent casting method. The incorporation of metal oxide resulted in no chemical structure change of neat PLA. PLA/ZnO and PLA/MgO exhibited the widest inhibition while PLA/TiO2 resulted in the smallest inhibition zone. The addition of metal oxides caused fracture and void on the surface of PLA. The addition of metal oxide into PLA films decreased the tensile strength at the concentration higher than 0.1 per hundred resin (phr). Incorporation of metal oxides accelerated the thermal degradation of PLA and tends to increase the biodegradability of PLA.