THERMOPLASTIC STARCH - graft - POLY(E-CAPROLACTONE) BY REACTIVE MELT MIXING

NINAGO, M.; LÓPEZ, O.; GARCIA, M.A.; LENCINA, M.S.; CIOLINI, A.; VILLAR, M.

CABA

Workshop; II Workshop on Bio-degradable Polymers and Biocomposites III Workshop BIOPURFIL, Bio-based Polyurethane Composites with Natural Fillers; 2015

Native starch is not a thermoplastic material but it can be converted into a continuous polymeric entangled phase by processing at high temperature shear stress in presence of enough plasticizers such as water, glycerol and sodium alginate within others. Even though thermoplastic starch can be extruded, injected and blown, its final materials present poor mechanical properties, dimensional instability and high water vapor permeability due to the inherent starch hydrophilic character. The alternative to overcome these drawbacks by blending this polysaccharide with poly(-caprolactone), (PCL), is restricted due to the immiscibility between the starch and this polyester. Thus, grafting PCL onto thermoplastic starch by covalent bonding, could improve their miscibility [1]. In this work, functionalized thermoplastic starch was obtained by reactive melt mixing. Thereby, PCL was grafted onto thermoplastic starch and their miscibility was studied by complementary techniques.