PRODUCTION OF STARCH-BASED ADHESIVE FROM CASSAVA

Thesis Overview

INTRODUCTIONEssentially all adhesive can be classified as either organic or inorganic material and each of these groups may be further subdivided.Some of these products are not new for example, the naturally occurring organic adhesives have been in use ever since, the first shellfish attached itself to a rock. And there is a good evidence o the ancient Egyptians using inorganic material to bond furniture. The development of adhesives has continued over the centuries to meet the requirements of various civilizations, but it was not until the industrial revolution that demands were made for major advances in adhesive technology. As a result of the availability of metal in large volume and the introduction of plastics, problem arises-including that of how to join this diversity of materials. In a quest to find the solutions to these problem, lead to the current development in adhesive technology. (lees, 1989).Adhesives exist in a variety of forms, liquid paste, film, powder, granules and in solid forms. Materials being fastened together by adhesives are called substrates or adherends. For an adhesive to fasten a material it must displace sir and other contaminants on the surface of the material, this phenomenon is known as wetting while the resulting assembly is the adhesive joint. Compositions of adhesives include binders such as starch, solvent which is the media in which the binders are dispersed to become a spreadable liquid, gelatinizes fillers, thickeners and preservatives to control microbial activities.Two types of adhesives exists, these are organic adhesives. The organic adhesive is subdivided into natural and synthetic adhesives. The natural adhesives include animal glue, casein glue, starch e.t.c. while the synthetic adhesives include the thermoplastic resins, polyesters, urethanes e.t.c.The inorganic type are the cement, soder and silicates. (Lees 1989).A study of starch and its derivatives shows that starch is the principal water dispersible natural polymer used industrially as adhesives. Chemically starch is a carbohydrate having the empirical formula (c6H10O5)n. it is a soft white powder second in abundance only to cellulose. It occurs particularly in grains, example maize, sorghum etc, in tubers example cassava, yam and in stem example cassava, yam and in stem example sago palm. It must be emphasized that starch-based adhesives are produced as a result of the ability of starch to gelatinize at a certain temperature. The gelatinization process involves hydrolysis of the starch to form gel, paste or solution. Starch based adhesive also include the degraded or converted starch such as dextrin.Adhesives generally found its applications in industries and starch-based applied in packaging labeling, bookbinding, leather works etc. essentially adhesives especially the synthetic types found their application in components needed to make many products such as aircraft, corrugated cartons, plywoods, automobiles, envelopes, stamps, non woven fabrics etc.The adhesive produced in this project will find its application mainly in paper bonding. Starch-based adhesives are cheap because, the raw materials are cheap because, the raw materials are cheap, readily available and give strong adhesion in low concentration in water. (De Bussy, 1972).1.1  SCOPEThe scope of the project was concentrated on the extraction of starch from cassava, which was dried and later used to carry out several ranges of formulation aimed at obtaining adhesive. The adhesive produced were tested for solid/-moisture content, PH, tach time, wettability and washability. It was also compared with the standard and existing types in the market.1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEMSAs a result of the availability of metal on large volumes and the introduction of plastics, problems arises on how these diversity of materials could be joined. It has been observed that bonding by mechanical means such as welding, riveting, hailing etc does not give evenly stress distribution in the bonded area. Also use of mechanical method of thin to inhibited where the furthermore bonding by mechanical means involves removal of useful materials from the adrenal and also involves much distortion. The use of adhesives help to overcome these problems.1.3     OBJECTIVESThe objectives of this project is to produce adhesives locally from starch. This idea is a welcome one because of time has come when we should not depend solely on foreign technology for all we need, we should strive to achieve self, economic reliance by utilizing abundant raw materials. An adhesive industry sited in the rural areas where the raw materials is available will provide employment for unemployed youths and thus reduce rural urban migrations.1.4     HYPOTHESIS

1. Can adhesive be produced from the hydrolysis of starch.
2. Can adhesive not be produced from the hydrolysis of starch.

The starch-based adhesive that will be produced will it compare with the market adhesives.The starch-based adhesive that will be produced will it not compare with the market adhesive?1.5     LIMITATIONSMost problems encountered during the research work, limited the efficiency of this research, these include;Text Book- most texts required for complete research on the topic were not available and this limited the research work.Chemical- most of the reagent used in the formulations were bought from the market, this is due to the non availability of reagents from the laboratory.Lack of equipments- most equipment necessary for complete analysis of the produced samples were available.