Mechanical Properties and Kinetics of Thermal Degradation of Bioplastics based on Straw Cellulose and Whole Wheat Flour

During  the  past  two  decades  the  use  of  bioplastics,  as  a  suitable  alternative to  petroleum-based  plastics,  has  attracted  researchers'  attention  to  a  great extent.  In  this  study,  the whole wheat four and  straw cellulose at different proportions were mixed with glycerol and bioplastics sheets were obtained by a press type molding machine.  The mechanical  properties  of  samples  were  examined  on compositions prepared by whole wheat weight in three proportions of 70, 60 and 50% and the cellulose in three proportions 75, 70 and 65%. The tensile tests on the samples indicated  that with  lowering  proportions  of  both  four  and  cellulose,  the modulus of elasticity and  tensile  strength of  the bioplastics dropped as well. The maximum modulus of  elasticity  achieved  for  the four  and  cellulose  compositions were 12.5, and 8.6 MPa, and the maximum tensile strengths were 878 and 202 kPa, respectively. The TGA tests indicated that the bioplastics prepared from whole wheat four showed higher temperatures of thermal degradation. The activation energies calculated for the four and cellulose bioplastics, as estimated by Arrhenius type equation, were 133.0 and 63.8 kJ/mol, respectively