Thermal decomposition and mechanical characterization of poly (lactic acid) and potato starch blend reinforced with biowaste SiO2

In this study, SiO2 nanoparticles were infused into BIOPLAST GF 106/02 using melt extrusion process to study the effect of biowaste derived crystalline SiO2 as a filler material. The Swagelok autogenic pressure reactor was used to derive the biobased SiO2. The ball milling technique was used to reduce the particle sizes. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry was used to study the thermal stability and decomposition behavior of the composite polymers. By the addition of reduced rice husks derived silica, the degradation temperature was increased from 300 celcius to 314 celcius. The glass transition temperature (Tg) was also increased from 54 celcius to 77 celcius, which is around 42% increase as compared to neat polymer. The activation energy of the first degradation of rice husk-derived SiO2 composite also increased by around 77% with the addition of rice husks silica which attributed to the improvement of the fire-retardant properties. Additionally, mechanical strength was measured by using a tensile test and the failure mechanism was studied by analyzing the fracture surfaces. The tensile strength of rice husks silica-reinforced BIOPLAST GF 106/02 is similar to 50.77 MPa, which is a significant increase in tensile properties compared to neat BIOPLAST GF 106/02 (25 MPa).