Gluten Polymer Structure

The ability of a degradable plastic to decay depends on the structure of its polymer chain. Biodegradable plastics are often manufactured from natural polymers, such as cornstarch and wheat gluten. Micro-organisms in the soil can break down these natural polymers. Ideally, a biodegradable plastic would break down completely into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass within six months, just like a natural material. 

Chapter 5 summarizes the investigation of lignocellulosic flax fiber-based reinforcement requirements to obtain structural and complex shape polymer composites. This chapter discusses in detail the possibility of forming complex shape structural composites which are highly desirable for advanced applications. Chapter 7 focuses on the structure and properties of cellulose-based starch polymer composites, while Chapter 8 focuses on the spectroscopic analysis of rice husk and wheat gluten husk-based polymer composites using computational chemistry. Chapter 9 summarizes the processing, characterization and properties of oil palm fiber-reinforced polymer composites. In this chapter, the use of oil palm as reinforcement in different polymer matrices such as natural rubber, polypropylene, polyurethane, polyvinyl chloride, polyester, phenol formaldehyde, polystyrene, epoxy and LLDPE is discussed. Chapter 10 also focuses on... 

Yuan Q, Lu W, Pan Y (2010) Structure and properties of biodegradable wheat gluten/ attapulgite nanocomposite sheets. Polym Degrad Stab 95 1581-1587... 

Most proteins (see Table 11.9 for their structure) have been used in food sciences, but recently a number of proteins of plant origin have received attention for the production of biodegradable polymers. These proteins include corn zein, wheat gluten, soy protein, and sunflower protein. The major drawback of protein-based plastics, apart from keratin, is... 

Lim, S.-H. (1999) Structure and properties of biodegradable gluten/ahphatic polyester blends , European Polymer Journal, 35, 1875-1881. 

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