Synthesis and production of biodegradable polymers from low cost plant resources with case study of cassava starch

Abstract

Cassava is one of the commonly, cheap and available food resource of interest in making the bio degradable polymers. Biodegradable polymers constitute of being less harmful to the environment compared to the non-biodegradable ones. Once these polymers are exposed to the environment they take some time in the environment then afterwards are worked upon by the microorganisms (enzyme catalytic action) hence get decomposed into soil particles and become useful to the environment. The main interest of the biodegradable polymers is that they can even add value to the soil once decomposed that is to say soil formation, manure etc. Synthesis and production of these polymers is accompanied by different chemical reactions (esterification modification reactions) for example acetylation, gelatinization, and use of dicarboxylic acids. These modifications aim at identifying the DS of the hydroxyl groups by the different reagents used. DS is also determined using different methods for example X-ray diffraction, FTIR analysis, TGA. These provide how the starch was substituted and also testing the different properties of the polymers got. DS is important in application of the polymers got for example highly substituted polymers are used in textile industries to produce plastics compared to the less substituted ones. Therefore, the need to reduce on the increased usage of plastics in our country Uganda there should be a suggestion on how to mitigate this, through coming up with different ideas on substituting them. Assessment of the biodegradable polymers can be discussed in broad to understand the similarities and differences between the structures, properties and their behavior before and even after application of them in the environment.