Effect of carrageenan addition on the characteristic of chitosan-based bioplastic

Synthetic plastic is a product that widely used in daily life. However, the use of plastic has a negative impact that is very difficult to decompose by nature, so it is necessary to find other alternatives by switching to bioplastics. Chitosan is a polysaccharide that can be used as raw material for bioplastics because of its good plastic-forming ability. On the other hand, it has poor elasticity so it is necessary to add carrageenan which can improve the mechanical properties of bioplastics. The purpose of this research is to determine the characteristics of bioplastics made from a mixture of chitosan and carrageenan. The concentration of chitosan used was 2, glycerol was 0.5, and carrageenan concentrations were varied from 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1. Characteristic tests carried out were film thickness, density, moisture content, solubility, tensile strength, elongation, FTIR, and antibacterial activity. The result showed that the addition of 0.5 of carrageenan resulted in better bioplastic with film thickness of 0.06 mm, density of 0.85 g/cm3, water content of 17.27, solubility of 36.89, the tensile strength of 13.72 mPa, the elongation of 46.03, inhibition zone of the antibacterial activity of 2.66 mm and a new group is formed in the FTIR test.