<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Publishing DTD v1.2d1 20170631//EN" "JATS-journalpublishing1.dtd">
<article xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="1.0" article-type="general-sciences" lang="en"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">IJCRR</journal-id><journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">I Journ Cur Res Re</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>International Journal of Current Research and Review</journal-title><abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="pubmed">I Journ Cur Res Re</abbrev-journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="ppub">2231-2196</issn><issn pub-type="opub">0975-5241</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Radiance Research Academy</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">2420</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.7324/IJCRR.2018.1021</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi-url"/><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>General Sciences</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>Study of Biodegradation of Luffa Cylindrica/Poly(lactic) Acid Composites&#13;
</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Tripathy</surname><given-names>Swarnalata</given-names></name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Pradhan</surname><given-names>Chinmay</given-names></name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Parida</surname><given-names>Chhatrapati</given-names></name></contrib></contrib-group><pub-date pub-type="ppub"><day>19</day><month>01</month><year>2018</year></pub-date><volume>)</volume><issue/><fpage>1</fpage><lpage>5</lpage><permissions><copyright-statement>This article is copyright of Popeye Publishing, 2009</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2009</copyright-year><license license-type="open-access" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><license-p>This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.</license-p></license></permissions><abstract><p>Objective: The main objective of present research is to convert the agricultural waste Luffa cylindrica (LC) fiber into a valuable product.&#13;
Methodology and Results: By injection molding technique, biodegradable composites were fabricated using 2, 5 and 10 weight percent of natural fiber of LC in biodegradable polymer matrix poly lactic acid (PLA).The patterns of disintegration of the virgin PLA and its composites were studied for a period of 75 days in sand, soil and compost environment and for a period of 30 days in bacterial and fungal conditions. The biodegradation were evaluated by measuring weight loss of the composite samples with time at every interval of 15 days in the above mentioned environment. The probable outcome of the study presents that the PLAand the composites using LC fibers almost degrade completely in bacterial environment after 30 days. However,in fungal environment the degradation was found upto 4 %. Lastly the composite samples were unable to degrade in sand, soil and compost environment. Before reinforcement the LC fibers are treated chemically for enhancing fiber matrix adhesion. The thermal&#13;
degradation and the structural changes of the chemically treated LC fibers are studied by thermogravimetry analysis and X ray diffractometer.&#13;
Conclusion: The fiber parts were mostly consumed by microorganisms. High fiber loading provides larger surface area for the microorganisms as a result the degradation rate is found to be high. Thus, the degradation process is accelerated by the microorganisms.&#13;
</p></abstract><kwd-group><kwd>Biodegradation</kwd><kwd> Biocomposites</kwd><kwd> Poly(lactic) acid</kwd><kwd> luffa cylindrica</kwd></kwd-group></article-meta></front></article>
