TITLE:
Influence of Phase Behavior and Miscibility on Mechanical, Thermal and Micro-Structure of Soluble Starch-Gelatin Thermoplastic Biodegradable Blend Films
AUTHORS:
Emad Ali Soliman, Masakazu Furuta
KEYWORDS:
Soluble Amylose Starch, Soluble Amylopectin Starch, Gelatin, Biodegradable Blend Films
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.5 No.11,
June
18,
2014
ABSTRACT: Polymer blends of cold water soluble starches (amylose or amylopectin
soluble starch) with gelatin were prepared using solvent casting method. The
solid state miscibility and polymer-polymer interactions between the
constituent polymers were studied by fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy
(FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorirmetry (DSC),
light optical microscopy (OP) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), whereas
the thermal stability of the blends was studied by thermogravimetric analysis
(TGA). Furthermore, tensile and water vapor barrier properties of the blends were
assessed. The obtained results exhibited that gelatin was more miscible with
amylose soluble starch than with amylopectin soluble starch. Moreover, enhancing
mechanical and water barrier properties of amylose soluble starch/gelatin
blends were more pronounced than those of amylopectin soluble starch/gelatin
blends. Generally, tensile strength (TS) and Elongation percentage (E) of the
blend films were found to be gradually increased with increasing the proportion
of gelatin. Nevertheless, increasing starch proportion was in favor of
decreasing water vapor permeability (WVP). At equal proportions of starch and
gelatin (1:1), TS was raised up to 8.69 MPa for amylose soluble starch/gelatin
blend films while it raised up to 4.96 MPa for amylopectin soluble starch/gelatin
blend films, and so on E was increased to its maximum by ~179.6% for soluble
amylose starch/gelatin blends while it was increased to ~114.5% for amylopectin
soluble starch/gelatin blends. On the other hand, WVP was significantly decreased
to be 6.46 and 12.09 g·mm/m2·day·kPa for blends of amylose and amylopectin
solublestarches, respectively.