Manufacturing and Characterization of Biodegradable Plastic Using Pectin from Fruit Peel and Alginic Acid from Seaweed

In this study, biodegradable plastics in the form of non-edible crop-based packaging materials utilizing pectin extracted from discarded fruit peels and alginic acid obtained from highly productive algae were prepared and subjected to mechanical and chemical characterization experiments for environmental protection and sustainable development. Using computational chemistry, zinc ions with higher average binding affinity to pectin and alginate were selected as the metal ions to be solidified among calcium and zinc ions used in previous studies, and five types of biodegradable plastics were prepared by varying the combination of pectin and alginate. The results showed that the combinations of [4g pectin, 4g alginic acid], [2g pectin, 6g alginic acid], and [2g pectin, 6g alginic acid] had better mechanical and chemical properties than [8g alginic acid], which was suggested in previous studies. Therefore, it seems that biodegradable plastics with 25∼50% alginic acid and pectin have better mechanical and chemical properties than alginic acid alone.