| Conventional petroleum-based plastics have become ubiquitous in the modern world, but in recent years, more attention has been brought to their nonrenewable origins and extensive post-use existence in the environment. As consumers search for more eco-friendly packaging solutions, biologically-derived plastics, or bioplastics, have arisen as one alternative. To explore the potential of these materials, twenty-one bioplastic sheets were created from the algae-derived polysaccharides agar, sodium alginate, and κ-carrageenan with the plasticizers glycerol and sorbitol. Chemical and mechanical characterization techniques, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-Vis spectrophotometry, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), contact angle goniometry, and tensile strength testing, were performed on the bioplastics to better understand their mechanical strength, thermal stability, degradability, light transmittance, and chemical composition. While algae-derived bioplastics possess promising potential, significant innovations are required to improve upon their mechanical properties and environmental interactions to make them true competitors with conventional petroleum-based plastics. This work emphasizes the potential and challenges of bioplastics in hopes of guiding the materials to refinement and market acceptance. |
