Thermoplastic starch–silica–polyvinyl alcohol composites by reactive extrusion

Published Date
Carbohydrate Polymers
11 February 2011, Vol.84(1):343–350, doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2010.11.042

• Author 

• Kris Frost ^a,,
• Julien Barthes ^a
• Daniel Kaminski ^a
• Edmond Lascaris ^b
• Julie Niere ^a
• Robert Shanks ^a

• aCRC for Polymers, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Australia
• bPlantic Technologies Pty Ltd., Australia

Received 27 August 2010. Revised 4 November 2010. Accepted 19 November 2010. Available online 25 November 2010. 

Abstract

Thermoplastic starch–silica (SiO₂) PVOH composite films were created via a reactive extrusion process using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as a precursor. Reaction efficiency was determined by X-ray fluorescence measurement of film Si content and was observed to improve with increasing TEOS concentration. Films with high SiO₂content were noted to have varying morphology and some SiO₂ clusters. Mechanical properties of the starch composite films were enhanced by even a small amount of SiO₂. Tensile strength and Young's modulus increased, while elongation at break decreased with increasing SiO₂ content. Dynamic mechanical analysis results showed that the starch–silica composite storage modulus increased and the loss modulus decreased with increasing SiO₂ content.

Keywords

Thermoplastic starch

Silica

Composite

Reactive extrusion

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• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author at: School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne 3001, Australia. Tel.: +61 411 337 699.

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