Eunice L. Hanry1 , Noumie Surugau1
1Seaweed Research Unit, Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia
Macroalgae are actively being used in various industries. However, there is high potential for them to be applied as base material for bioplastics, either as a whole or their extracts. Previous studies of bioplastics development using seaweed base material show potential of being incorporated into various industries, at the same time help reduce single-use plastics. Development of bioplastics was done by mixing biomass into distilled water at respective ratio (1:50 – 1:90 (w/v)), heated to 60oC. Then, using glycerol (1 – 5 % (v/v)) as plasticizer was added which was later heated to 80oC. By using casting method, solution was poured into petri dish then dried at 50oC overnight. Bioplastics’ properties, such as, appearance, functional groups, mechanical properties, thermal properties, permeability properties, biodegradability, and shelf life, were characterized. Resulted data showed that tensile strength decreases while elongation-at-break, water vapour permeability increases from 1:50 to 1:90. The same trend from 1% to 5% (v/v) glycerol added. As for their appearance, as the biomass were dissolved in more water, their colour intensity and opacity decreases. Same goes for when more glycerol was added because their intermolecular bond loosens resulting in lower colour intensity and opacity. All samples developed were highly biodegradable and their shelf life all lasted more than 14 weeks. As a conclusion, to replace single use plastic optimum mixture was at 1:60 biomass to water ratio with 1% glycerol content. However, developed seaweed-based bioplastics resulted different properties at different mixture ratio which can be applied specifically according to their purpose.