Caracterização da biodegradabilidade de compósitos de fibras vegetais com ligante PVA.

Abstract

The use of natural fibers has been growing in recent years due to the focus given to biodegradable materials stemmed from renewable sources. In this context, the present work studied the biodegradability of extracted natural fiber composites of raw sweet potato and banana stem and PVA binder in a simulated soil (according to ASTM 160-03), to its use in the production of biodegradable containers. In addition to visual analysis, the biodegradability of the composite was determined by mass loss, absorption spectrometry in the infrared Fourier transform (FTIR), optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy X-rays (EDS). The results indicate that it is possible to obtain a biodegradable composite fiber composed of natural raw sweet potato, banana stem and the binder PVA-based and that made with banana stalk fibers degrade more easily.