Structural changes and triacetin migration of starch acetate film contacting with distilled water as food simulant

• The macromolecular interaction was enhanced to form more compact amorphous regions.
• The crystallites were formed interference and further aggregation.
• The mobility of macromolecular chain, triacetin and water molecules was restricted.
• The relaxation caused the subsequent triacetin migration to deviate from Fick's law.
• Aggregation structural modification of the film could restrain plasticizer migration.

This work studied the structural changes and the migration of triacetin plasticizer in starch acetate films in the presence of distilled water as food simulant. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy result showed that the macromolecular interaction was enhanced to form compact aggregation of amorphous chains. The characterization of aggregation structures via wide and small angle X-ray scattering techniques indicated that the orderly microregion was compressed and the crystallites inside were “squeezed” to form interference and further aggregation. The compact aggregation structures restricted the mobility of macromolecules, triacetin and water molecules. The overall kinetic and the diffusion model analysis manifested that Fick's second law was the predominant mechanism for the short-term migration of triacetin. The increasing relaxation within film matrix caused the subsequent migration to deviate from Fick's law. The safe and reasonable application of the starch-based materials with restrained plasticizer migration could be accomplished by controlling the molecular interaction and aggregation structures.