New Approach: Green Nanocomposite From Waxy Maize Starch

NANCY LIS GARCÍA, LAURA RIBBA, ALAIN DUFRESNE, MIRTA ARANGUREN, SILVIA GOYANES

Alicante, España

Congreso; BIOPOL 2009, 2nd international Conference on Biodegradable Polymers and Sustainable Composites; 2009

Biodegradable nanocomposites were prepared using, as reinforcement, starch nanoparticles obtained by acidic hydrolysis of waxy maize starch. The same type of starch, which particularity is the presence of a 99% of amylopectin in its content, was used to prepare plasticized and unplasticized matrices. A comparison between the IR spectra in the 1000 cm-1 region shows that the composite with glycerol has less local order (more disordered or more amorphous states) than the one without it. The x-ray diffraction patterns obtained for the plasticized composite show both peaks A and B, showing that the crystalline structure of the nanocrystals was not affected by the manufacture of the nanocomposites. In the FE-SEM micrographs, the fracture surface of the plasticized composites shows that, the addition of nanoparticles leads to a fibrillar structure, probably due to associations between amylopectin molecules and/or nanoparticles aggregates. This characteristic is not observed or less marked in unplasticized composites, suggesting the fundamental roll of glycerol in the formation of these structures.