Open Access

ARTICLE

Material Properties and Molecular Aspects of Highly Acetylated Starch-Based Films

by

1 Department of Food Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7051, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
2 SIK – Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, Box 5401, SE-402 29 Göteborg, Sweden
3 Lyckeby Stärkelsen, SE-291 91 Kristianstad, Sweden
4 Starch Academy, Drottninggatan 29, SE-411 14 Göteborg, Sweden

* Corresponding Author:

Journal of Renewable Materials 2014, 2(2), 134-144. https://doi.org/10.7569/JRM.2014.634110

Received 31 January 2014; Accepted 17 April 2014;

Abstract

Properties of starch triacetate fi lms from different botanical origins were evaluated. Tensile and barrier properties, glass transition temperatures and moisture uptake were measured, and the molecular structure was characterised. High-amylose starches were good fi lm formers, normal potato starch formed continuous but brittle fi lms and potato amylopectin formed very brittle fi lms even after plasticisation. Barley amylopectin did not form continuous fi lms. Different plasticisers were studied and diacetin was shown to perform better than the standard plasticiser triacetin. All fi lms were water resistant, and the best fi lms gave water vapour barriers in the range of fi lms of polylactic acid, cellulose acetates and gluten. The inherent oxygen barrier of native starches was lost when the starches were highly acetylated. Starch triacetates are commonly dissolved in organic solvents such as chloroform. When testing different approaches to dissolve the starch triacetates it was found that acetic acid as well as acetylacetone were good solvents without imposing negative effects on material properties.

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Keywords

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