The Glycerol Effect on Mechanical Behaviour of Biodegradable Plastic from the Walur (Amorphophallus paenifolius Var. sylvestris)

Bioplastic material development by utilizing indigenous commodity is a trend to overcome the environment damage by plastic and as a sustainable resource. As a home of broad biodiversity, Indonesia has more species of Amorphophallus that are still unexplored. One of species among them that is possible to explore as bioplastic material is Walur. The aim of this work is to study the behaviour of bioplastics with the Walur corm as a raw material and glycerol as a plasticizer. Glycerol portion is varied in 7 levels and in a range of 6% to 30%. The result showed that glycerol has significantly affected the tensile strength, elongation and modulus elasticity of the Walur plastics. Glycerol could decrease both, elongation and elasticity of Walur plastic despite increasing effect on elongation behaviour.