01
ABOUT
02 THEORY
03 REQUIREMENT
04 PROCEDURE
05 RESULT &
CONCLUSION 06
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I would like to express my heartfelt
gratitude to my chemistry teacher for their
invaluable guidance and support throughout
this project. Their insights have deepened
my understanding of the subject. I also
appreciate my classmates for their
collaboration and encouragement. A special
thanks to my family for providing the
resources and a conducive environment for
my research. Their unwavering support has
been instrumental in my success, and I am
truly grateful for it. This project would not
have been possible without all of your
contributions!
Aim: Making a plastic from starch
Introduction:
Plastic pollution is currently one of the
biggest environmental concerns.
Synthetic Plastics are made up of long
chain of molecules (polymer) containing
repeated units of carbon atoms
(monomer). These Synthetic polymers
have extremely strong carbon-carbon
bond with each other. Because of this
inherent molecular stability,
Plastics do not break down into simpler
components easily.
So, to find an alternative t o this
problem, I made a successful attempt to
make biodegradable plastic. We say it
Biodegradable because natural
organisms are capable of breaking the
material down into smaller parts. We use
starch polymer (Amylose) which is
biodegradable in nature and hence
successfully converted to replacement
of plastic.
Why did we choose Starch?
Starch is made of long chains of glucose
molecules joined together. Strictly, it
contains two polymers: amylose, which is
straight chained, and amylopectin, which
is branched.
Glucose (simple sugar) is essential for
life, that being the reason many
organisms from bacteria to human
break starch into simple
sugar(glucose).
How does it degrade into simple
sugar?
Starch is a chain of simple sugar
monomers called glucose. T h e bonds
that connect then are called glycosidic
bonds. A n enzyme called amylase helps
break sugar part by fitting between two
monomers. A water molecule is
absorbed in order to break the glycosidic
bond between two monomers in a
process called hydrolysis.
Structural representation is as
below
1.Potato starch
2. Propan-1,2,3-triol
(glycerol)
3. Hydrochloric acid
4. Sodium
hydroxide
5. Spirit lamp
6. Tripod
7.Universal Indicator
paper
8. Stirring rod
9.China dish
1. Start the experiment by placing
tripod over a Spirit lamp with China
dish at above it.
2. Add some water into the China dish.
Note: If too much water is used, the
polymer does not solidify and remains
a liquid
3. Then add starch little by little with
continuous stir. Avoid making air
bubbles.
Note: When starch is dried from an
aqueous solution it forms a film as a
result of hydrogen bonding between
the chains
4. Add some HCl into the mixture.
Note: After step3 However, the
amylopectin inhibits the formation of
the film. The addition of hydrochloric
acid breaks the amylopectin down,
allowing a more satisfactory film
formation
5. Add propan1,2,3-triol in a suitable
amount.
Note: The addition of propan-1,2,3-
triol has an effect because of its
hydroscopic (water attracting)
properties. Water bound to the
propan-1,2,3-triol gets in amongst
the starch chains and inhibits the
formation of crystalline areas,
preventing brittleness and resulting
in more ‘plastic’ properties.
6. To neutralize HCl add some NaOH into
it.
7. After you observe it forming like
Plastic film or Vaseline like gel lay it
down to flat surface.
8. Spread it into a long sheet of
desired thickness. 9. Let it dry
properly for at least an hour.
10. Peal it out from the surface. And
your plastic is formed.
Mixing of chemicals at raised temperature
making thin sheet of plastic
Thus, we obtain fair looking plastic.
Things that could be done better is to
pierce out plastic properly once its
prepared and little food color can be
added for good appearance
We obtained a Plastic piece which
demonstrates that starch can be used
to make plastic
https://
scholar.google.com/
https://www.google.co
m/
