Reducing water absorption in compostable starch-based plastics

To improve the mechanical and physical properties of corn starch-based bioplastics the addition of natural polymers was investigated. Thermoplastic starch (TPS) was made of 70 g corn starch and 30 g glycerol. To this mixture 10-10 g of cellulose, hemicellulose and zein (protein) were added. Mechanical strength, water absorption and enzymatic degradation of composite materials were measured. Unfilled TPS and 10 w/w% polycaprolactone filled TPS were used as controls in the experiments. All the samples were biodegradable by enzymes. The tensile strength of unfilled and biopolymer filled TPS samples were significantly higher than that of the polycaprolactone filled one. Hemicellulose and zein composites had the best mechanical strength (10.4 and 11.5 MPa). Water uptake of each sample was measured using five different relative humidities. There were slight differences in water uptake of polycaprolactone, hemicellulose and zein filled TPS, however unfilled and cellulose filled samples absorbed more moisture than the polycaprolactone control in all the relative humidities used.