Bionanocomposites for Packaging Applications by Mohammad Jawaid & Sarat Kumar Swain

Author:Mohammad Jawaid & Sarat Kumar Swain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

7.5.2 Sugar Palm Starch Blend

Polymer blending is another type of polymer modification by combining two or more polymers in order to achieve the desired properties. Apart from using synthetic polymer, blending of starch with another biopolymer is a promising approach since the resulting materials will be able to sustain the biodegradable and renewable aspects of starch. Modification of thermoplastic sugar palm starch through incorporation with agar has been conducted in previous studies (Jumaidin et al. 2016, 2017). In this study, the sugar palm starch was pre-mixed with glycerol (30 wt% starch-based) in order to produce the thermoplasticity behavior of the material. The thermoplastic sugar palm starch was then incorporated with agar at 10 to 40 wt% by using internal mixer Brabender Plastograph at 140 °C for 10 min. Consequently, these mixtures were granulated and thermo-pressed at 140 °C for 10 min in order to obtain laminate plate with 3 mm thickness. In these processes, the presence of plasticizer and heat has transformed the starch and agar into thermoplastic polymer blend. The results show that incorporation of agar has increased the mechanical properties of the material, i.e., tensile, flexural, and impact strength. The authors attributed the properties enhancement of thermoplastic sugar palm starch/agar blend to several reasons. Firstly, chemical similarity between starch and agar has led to good miscibility and good phase compatibility between them. This finding was supported by the homogenous surface of the tensile fracture (Fig. 7.11). Furthermore, FTIR analysis indicates the formation of new hydrogen bonding between starch and agar following the blending process. Finally, the enhancement in the mechanical properties of thermoplastic sugar palm starch/agar blend was attributed to more entangled network structure of agar which provides strengthening effect to the polymer blend.

Fig. 7.11SEM micrograph of fracture surface of thermoplastic SPS blended with different ratio of agar a 0 wt% b 10 wt% c 20 wt% d 30 wt% e 40 wt% (Jumaidin et al. 2016)

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