Recent advances in starch–clay nanocomposites

Abstract

Biological nanocomposites are a valuable addition to the existing nanocomposite materials and eventually can substitute petroleum based composite materials in numerous applications due to their inherent advantages such as biodegradability, eco-friendliness, low cost and easy availability to name a few. Recently polymer-clay nanocomposites have achieved much more attention due to their enhanced properties such as size dispersion and significant enhancement in physico-chemical and mechanical properties in comparison to the pure polymer systems. Among various biopolymers, starch is one of the most abundant natural polymer on earth and is highly valuable due to its chemical and physical properties. Starch polymer has highly increased potential as an alternative to petroleum based materials. However, starch cannot be used alone and starch-clay nanocomposite have emerged as a new potential green sustainable materials. This article focuses on recent progress in starch based nanocomposites with particular emphasis on starch-clay nanocomposite preparation, properties and applications.

Investigation on the Effects of Glycerol and Clay Contents on the Structure and Mechanical Properties of Maize Starch Nanocomposite Films

“…Moreover, the interference of glycerol molecules surrounded by water molecules kept apart the glucan molecules in the matrix thus increasing the mobility of starch chains. [7,8,15] Figure 2b shows the tensile strength curves of thermoplastic starch nanoclay composites for the three types of montmorillonite employed (Ma, Mb, OM) as a function of clay content. From the results, it becomes apparent that the interactions between the glycerol molecules, starch chains, and clay nanoparticles greatly affect the formation of the nanostructure and influence the mechanical properties of the nanocomposite films.…”

Recent advances and perspectives on starch nanocomposites for packaging applications

“…Amylopectin chains have the radial arrangement of alternative crystalline and amorphous areas with branched points (Fig. 3b) [3,13,19,20,[26][27][28]. Amylopectin molecules can be described by their chain length and degree of polymerisation [24,25].…”

“…Conventional preparation techniques have been implemented to prepare starch nanocomposites like extrusion, solution casting, compression and injection moulding [6,8]. According to Madhumitha et al [28] and Scarfato et al [35] casting and extrusion are the most common manufacturing methods for material processing of starch as a non-thermoplastic polymer. As such, solution casting and extrusion are exclusively discussed in this section as the most popular processing methods.…”

“…Then equal amounts of suspension are poured into moulds to control the film thickness. After that, films are dried at temperatures between 30-50 º C in an oven or at room temperature for at least 24 h [6,8,28]. Nanofillers can be incorporated into starch matrices by different means.…”

Application of Artificial Intelligence in Modern Healthcare System

“…In recent times, there has been an enormous thrust in the usage of biopolymers for a number of applications, especially in the biomedical and also in pharmaceutical areas [51,52]. The functional effectiveness of the biopolymer molecules depends on the physicochemical properties, structural features, and composition [53]. It is feasible to rationally design the structure and composition of the biopolymer to gain suitable useful features [54].…”