Thermo-compression moulded biodegradable films based on thermoplastic corn starch and chitin/chitosan

O. LOPEZ; M. A. GARCIA; M. VILLAR; P. PIZZO; A. GENTILI; M. S. RODRIGUEZ; L. ALBERTENGO

Fortaleza

Congreso; VI Iberoamerican Chitin Symposium (VI SIAQ)- XII International Conference on Chitin Chitosan (XII ICCC); 2012

Sociedad Iberoamericano de Quitina

THERMO-COMPRESSION MOULDED BIODEGRADABLE FILMS BASED ON THERMOPLASTIC CORN STARCH AND CHITIN/CHITOSAN   O. LOPEZ1,2, M. A. GARCIA2, M. VILLAR1, P. PIZZO3, A. GENTILI4, M.S. RODRIGUEZ3, L. ALBERTENGO3   The growing accumulation of non-biodegradable waste together with the difficulty of recycling the majority of packaging has stimulated the development of biodegradable packaging from renewable sources [1]. Among the natural polymers, starch has advantages due to its low cost, high availability, easy handling and functionality. Despite these advantages, starch films have poor mechanical properties and high humidity ambient sensibility [2]. An alternative to overcome these limitations consists in blend starch with chitosan. The use of this biopolymer improves starch film mechanical properties and, due it is more hydrophobic than starch, enhances film water vapor permeability. Even in the literature are found many works related to films based on starch and chitosan, the use of chitin is less reported. Besides, the thermo-compression method to obtain films from these biopolymers is scarcely reported. The aim of this work was to develop biodegradable films based on thermoplastic corn native starch (TPS), chitin and chitosan by thermo-compression.  The processing conditions were optimized and the obtained materials were characterized. The films were prepared employing native corn starch, chitin/chitosan, glycerol and distilled water. The used components proportions are shown in Table 1. Besides, a formulation without chitin/chitosan was prepared as a control.