Starch-based materials

One of the most-commercialized routes is the addition of starch-based materials but other biodegradable additives are used. Marketed solutions are numerous, for example, without claiming to be exhaustive. 

Bastioli C (1998) Properties and applications of Mater-Bi starch-based materials. Polym Degrad Stab 59 263-272... 

Silva et al. (2006) studied starch-based microparticles as a novel strategy for tissue engineering applications. They developed starch-based microparticles, and evaluated them for bioactivity, cytotoxicity, ability to serve as substrates for cell adhesion, as well as their potential to be used as delivery systems either for anti-inflammatory agents or growth factors. Two starch-based materials were used for the development of starch-based particulate systems (1) a blend of starch and polylactic acid (SPLA) (50 50 w/w) and (2) a chemically modifled potato starch, Paselli II (Pa). Both materials enabled the synthesis of particulate systems, both polymer and composite (with BG 45S5). A simple solvent extraction method was employed for the synthesis of SPLA and SPLA/BG microparticles, while for Pa and Pa/BG... 

Mendes, S. C.,Bovell, Y. R.,Reis,R. L., Cunha, A. M., deBruijn, J. D., vanBlitterswijk, C. A. (2001). Biocompatibility testing of novel starch-based materials with potential application in orthopaedic surgery. Biomaterials., 22,2057-2064. 

Pittsburg, PA). Glycoamine derivatives of the starch-base materials were also dialyzed against distilled water for 40 hours in MW cut-off 3.5 X 1000 dialysis tubing (Spectra/Por 3 Fisher Scientific, Pittsburg, PA). 

Starch base material development was completed by producing a periodate-oxidized, amylase-hydrolyzed material (Method C Oxidized). The process flowsheet for the production of this material and a corresponding amylase-treated Control (i) starch is given in Figure 3. 

The addition of phenylalanine to the previously described starch base materials (Control and Oxidized starches) was done on a lOX (w/w) level for covalent attachment. The Oxidized starch was apparently more conductive to cyanogen bromide activation for amino acid attachment than was the Control starch (92X attachment versus 67X, respectively). The addition of aspartame was also completed for the Oxidized (ii) starch polymer on a level of... 

All the above examples clearly demonstrate that the physical properties of starch-based materials are related to the molecular structure and the state of starch. Undoubtedly, there is a need for more work in the area of structure-property relationships of starches in model systems and in composite matrices of real products. Such studies would be useful in optimizing product formulation and in refinement of processing conditions to improve end-product characteristics and increase shelf life. 

The most relevant achievements in this sector are related to thermoplastic starch polymers resulting from the processing of native starch by chemical, thermal and mechanical means, and to its complexation to other co-polymers. The resulting materials show properties ranging from the flexibility of polyethylene to the rigidity of polystyrene, and can be soluble or insoluble in water as well as insensitive to humidity. Such properties explain the leading position of starch-based materials in the biodegradable polymer field. 

Following the sale of the film business to Novamont in 2000, Biotec offers starch-based materials for foodservice products and pharmaceutical applications. 

BIOP Biopolymer Technologies offers a starch-based material comprising an additive consisting of a vinyl alcohol/vinyl acetate copolymer, sold under the Biopar trade name (4). 

Starch-based materials represent the largest class of biodegradable polymer with 44,800 tonnes (including loose-fill foam packaging) consumed in 2005. Excluding loose-fill, starch-based materials amounted to 21,700 tonnes in 2005. Polylactic acid (PLA) is the second largest material class with 35,800 tonnes in 2005, followed by synthetic aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters with 14,000 tonnes. The embryonic PHA category amounts to around 250 tonnes. 

Biopolymer Technologies (Biop) offers a starch-based material containing an additive consisting of a vinyl alcohol/vinyl acetate copolymer. In 2005, the company transferred production of its bioplastics from The Netherlands to Schwarzheide in Germany and invested 7m in a new plant there, increasing its production capacity to 10,000 tonnes per annum. The announcement followed the decision earlier in 2005 by BASF to produce its Ecoflex biodegradable plastic, one of the components of Biop s Biopar resins, at the Schwarzheide site. 

Netherlands based packaging company NNZ BV offers Okopack, a biodegradable starch-based material. Okopack is available in three varieties Okopack C is transparent with high gloss, with... 

In 2005, Nestle became the first major user in Europe to adopt Plantic s biodegradable starch-based materials for manufacture of Dairy Box chocolate trays in Europe. 

Currently, materials derived directly from starch by physical processing or by continuous chemical modification, as in reactive extrusion, are considered the most promising options for bio-based plastic production, particularly on economic grounds. A brief historical view of such starch-based materials is offered in the next section. 

Formulation and Development of Biodegradable and Bio-based Multiphase Materials Plasticized Starch-based Materials... 

Protein-based materials have also been abundantly discussed in other publications [ZHA08], The next section of this chapter is, therefore, primarily oriented toward one example of an agropolymer starch. World production of starch-based materials for bioplastic applications is far from negligible. Put differently, it is greater than or ecpral to that of PLA. 

FRI 96] Fringant C., Desbreres J., Rinaudo M., Physical properties of acetylated starch-based materials relation with their molecular characteristics . Polymer, vol. 37, no. 13, pp. 2663-2673,1996. 

Properties of starch films may be modified through the addition of plastieizers and synthetic polymers. Starch-based materials are often blended with PE,... 

Abstract The development and production of biodegradable starch-based materials has attracted more and more attention in recent years due to the depletion in the world s oil resources and the growing interest in easing the environmental burden from petrochemically derived polymers. Furthermore, the unique microstructures of different starches can be used as an outstanding model system to illustrate the conceptual approach to understanding the relationship between the structures and properties in polymers. 

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