Acetylation of Native Starch for Production of Biodegradable Plastics

ABSTRACT For many years, the use of natural polymers for the fabrication of packaging materials has been an interesting alternative to replace non-biodegradable polymers which are normal components of these materials. The core problem of these starch based plastics is their hydrophilic character and the fact that they tend to become brittle with ageing. Unmodified starch is too much hydrophilic to be used as food packaging material. Chemical modification must be carried out in order to make them hydrophobic. These modifications are grafting, alkylation-especially esterification including acetylation.
The purpose of the project is to prepare acetylated starches/starch esters of different Degree of Substitution using different concentrations of acetic anhydride for modifying the native starch. The testing of samples is done by testing various properties of the obtained samples such as Degree of Substitution, Solubility, Swelling Power, Light Transmittance and Water Binding Capacity.

INDEX

1. Introduction ………………………………………………………7 2. Literature Survey………………………………………………….9 3. Biodegradation…………………………………………………..14 4. Biopolymers……………………………………………………..21 5. Starch…………………………………………………………….24 6. Physiochemical Properties of Modified Starch………………….28 7. Experiment………………………………………………………35 8. Results…………………………………………………………...40 9. Discussion……………………………………………………….42 10. Conclusion……………………………………………………….47 11. Future Scenario of Biodegradable Polymers…………………….48 12. References……………………………………………………….49. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
Plastic is the general term for a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic polymerization products. They are composed of organic condensation or addition polymers and may contain other substances to improve performance or economics. There are many natural polymers generally considered to be "plastics". Plastics can be formed into objects or films or fibers. Their name