The Possibility of Preparing Pseudo-thermoplastic Starch

Abstract

Starch is biodegradable polymer, its melting point is about 250℃, when the temperature is higher than 100℃, it begins to lose the equilibrium moisture inside the starch crumb and decompounds, so it is already degraded before melting. Therefore natural starch is not thermoplastic, melting process cannot be done. It could only possess thermoplasticity after using external plasticizes to make its molecular constitution become disordering. Therefore this study has used environment-protected plasticizer (glycerol and water) and corn starch to prepare the pseudo-thermoplastic starch. Its theory is to use glycerin and water as the plasticizer to plasticize the starch and reduce its melting point. First of all carry out gelatinization on the starch and then use the glycerol to plasticize it and prepare it as the pseudo-thermoplastic starch. Strength test, DSC, TGA and hot press test were used to analyze the properties of different pseudo-thermoplastic starches prepared by the plasticizers of difference ratios.