Evaluation of natural rubber latex film consisting cassava peel as a bio-based filler for biodegradable gloves

Environmental pollution caused by the accumulation of natural and synthetic rubber gloves from various industries has led to searching for alternative method which is production of biodegradable glove. In order to achieve the desired biodegradable properties, incorporation of bio-based fillers into rubber latex can be a promising alternative. Organic starch extracted from cassava peel using filtration technique is investigated in this study as an alternative to biodegradable-based filler. Waste from cassava peel act as a sustainable ingredient for biodegradable glove due to abundant use in local crisp production. In this study, natural rubber latex containing cassava-peel starch were successfully prepared by varying starch loading at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%. The surface morphology, tensile stress and strain, elongation at break, chemical resistance analysis and weight loss percentage after soil burial for one month were investigated. This study verifies that 20% cassava starch loading in natural rubber latex indicates the optimum condition with tensile strength at 12.082 MPa, elongation at break at 325.37mm, 7.23% of weight loss after soil burial and weight change after chemical resistance test for strong acid and alkali at -0.85% and 3.20% respectively. Thus, 20% cassava starch loading is the optimum filler loadings with a good filler dispersion in rubber matrix.