Effect of Polylactic Acid (PLA) as Reinforcement for Jackfruit Seed Starch-Based Degradable Plastic

Synthetic plastics harm the environment, so finding better materials is important. Researchers have studied PLA and starch to replace non-degradable petrochemicals. This research uses jackfruit seed starch and PLA to make degradable plastics. The tensile strength of degradable plastics was 3.35–9.08 MPa. Tests showed that the plastics were hydrophilic, meaning they bind to water and break down easily. The combination of the jackfruit seed starch with PLA-reinforced plastic had better thermal stability. Starch made the material swell more, while PLA made it swell less. Jackfruit seed starch-based plastics reinforced with PLA degraded in 52–56 days, meeting the ASTM 6400 standard.