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In order to reduce the environmental problems caused by plastic wastes, the development of new materials based in renewable resources which are naturally biodegradable and low cost has been the object of intensive academic and industrial research (Hajar Othman, 2014; Vartiainen, Vähä-Nissi, & Harlin, 2014). While starch appears to be an ideal replacement to petroleum-based plastics, mainly due to its abundance, renewability, biodegradability and inexpensiveness, there are several disadvantages that make its application unfeasible. Poor mechanical behavior and high water vapor permeability (WVP) are the main drawbacks of starch-based materials, and are a consequence or starch structure.Amylose content and branches length and placement in amylopectin are the major determinant factors of starch functional properties, such as water absorption, gelatinization and pasting, retrogradation, and susceptibility to enzymatic attack (Copeland, Blazek, Salman, & Tang, 2009; Jane, 2007). According to their botanical source, starches possess differing amylose and lipid-complexed amylose contents, amylopectin chain-length distributions, relative crystallinities, microstructures, swelling behavior, gelatinization properties, and pasting/rheological characteristics (Bertolini, Souza, Nelson, & Huber, 2003; Kim & Huber, 2008). Due to their strong and flexible structure, transparency (derived from the linear structure of amylose), and their resistant to fats and oils, starch films are useful for numerous applications in food industry.Incorporating plasticizer agents, such as water and/or poly-alcohols, starch can be turned into thermoplastic called thermoplastic starch (TPS) through destructurization by employing mechanical and heat energy. Use of TPS for the fabrication of biodegradable films has generated much interest in textile, packaging and paper industries for many years. However, up to now this biodegradable polymer can not be used for wide applications because of some limitations. Compared with common thermoplastics, starch-based biodegradable products unfortunately reveal many disadvantages which are mainly attributed to the highly hydrophilic character of starch. Normally, strong hydrogen bonds hold the starch chains together causing the nonsolubility of starch granules in cold water. However, starch crystalline structure is broken when it is transformed in TPS, allowing water molecules to interact with hydroxyl groups and causing the partial solubilization of starch granules. This hydrophilic nature of starch causes low water stability and high moisture sensitivity, which limit the development of starch-based materials.On the other hand, because of its molecular structure it has a relatively high glass transition temperature (Tg), and then a brittle behavior at room temperature. This brittleness increases with time due to retrogradation. Besides, plasticizers such as glycerol have shown to influence the crystallization kinetics of starch, and therefore the TPS final mechanical properties. Plasticizer incorporation usually leads to highly stretchable materials, but at the expense of very low strength at break and elastic modulus.That is, in general the mechanical properties of TPS-based materials, except for strain at break, are very bad compared with other thermoplastics, limiting their use to very specific applications associated with soft plastics. Of course, the processing properties chosen to develop the material also influence in its properties as they can lead for example to degradation of starch molecules. Having this into account, the final mechanical properties of the material will strongly depend on the storage time prior to testing as well as on the plasticizers content and the processing conditions.A brief description of the three main disadvantages (hydrophilic nature, mechanical properties and processability) of starch-based materials will be exposed in the next sections.Incorporating plasticizer agents, such as water and/or poly-alcohols, starch can be turned into thermoplastic called thermoplastic starch (TPS) through destructurization by employing mechanical and heat energy. Use of TPS for the fabrication of biodegradable films has generated much interest in textile, packaging and paper industries for many years. However, up to now this biodegradable polymer can not be used for wide applications because of some limitations. Compared with common thermoplastics, starch-based biodegradable products unfortunately reveal many disadvantages which are mainly attributed to the highly hydrophilic character of starch. Normally, strong hydrogen bonds hold the starch chains together causing the nonsolubility of starch granules in cold water. However, starch crystalline structure is broken when it is transformed in TPS, allowing water molecules to interact with hydroxyl groups and causing the partial solubilization of starch granules. This hydrophilic nature of starch causes low water stability and high moisture sensitivity, which limit the development of starch-based materials.On the other hand, because of its molecular structure it has a relatively high glass transition temperature (Tg), and then a brittle behavior at room temperature. This brittleness increases with time due to retrogradation. Besides, plasticizers such as glycerol have shown to influence the crystallization kinetics of starch, and therefore the TPS final mechanical properties. Plasticizer incorporation usually leads to highly stretchable materials, but at the expense of very low strength at break and elastic modulus.That is, in general the mechanical properties of TPS-based materials, except for strain at break, are very bad compared with other thermoplastics, limiting their use to very specific applications associated with soft plastics. Of course, the processing properties chosen to develop the material also influence in its properties as they can lead for example to degradation of starch molecules. Having this into account, the final mechanical properties of the material will strongly depend on the storage time prior to testing as well as on the plasticizers content and the processing conditions.A brief description of the three main disadvantages (hydrophilic nature, mechanical properties and processability) of starch-based materials will be exposed in the next sections.Incorporating plasticizer agents, such as water and/or poly-alcohols, starch can be turned into thermoplastic called thermoplastic starch (TPS) through destructurization by employing mechanical and heat energy. Use of TPS for the fabrication of biodegradable films has generated much interest in textile, packaging and paper industries for many years. However, up to now this biodegradable polymer can not be used for wide applications because of some limitations. Compared with common thermoplastics, starch-based biodegradable products unfortunately reveal many disadvantages which are mainly attributed to the highly hydrophilic character of starch. Normally, strong hydrogen bonds hold the starch chains together causing the nonsolubility of starch granules in cold water. However, starch crystalline structure is broken when it is transformed in TPS, allowing water molecules to interact with hydroxyl groups and causing the partial solubilization of starch granules. This hydrophilic nature of starch causes low water stability and high moisture sensitivity, which limit the development of starch-based materials.On the other hand, because of its molecular structure it has a relatively high glass transition temperature (Tg), and then a brittle behavior at room temperature. This brittleness increases with time due to retrogradation. Besides, plasticizers such as glycerol have shown to influence the crystallization kinetics of starch, and therefore the TPS final mechanical properties. Plasticizer incorporation usually leads to highly stretchable materials, but at the expense of very low strength at break and elastic modulus.That is, in general the mechanical properties of TPS-based materials, except for strain at break, are very bad compared with other thermoplastics, limiting their use to very specific applications associated with soft plastics. Of course, the processing properties chosen to develop the material also influence in its properties as they can lead for example to degradation of starch molecules. Having this into account, the final mechanical properties of the material will strongly depend on the storage time prior to testing as well as on the plasticizers content and the processing conditions.A brief description of the three main disadvantages (hydrophilic nature, mechanical properties and processability) of starch-based materials will be exposed in the next sections.