High-strength potato starch/hectorite clay-based nanocomposite film: synthesis and characterization

Abstract

To develop biopolymers for packaging materials, various biopolymers, biosynthetic polymers, chemosynthetic polymers, their blends, and composites have been studying for the last 2 decades. Natural polysaccharides are one of the most available and cheap materials found in nature. Here, a biopolymer film based on a natural polysaccharide, particularly potato starch, is utilized to establish a facile approach to fabricate starch–clay nanocomposite (SC–NC) film, which may potentially be used as an alternative to synthetic plastics. A range of plasticizers and a family of 2:1 phyllosilicates smectic clay, hectorite, are used to prepare the film through a very simple casting method. The clay particles are found to be homogeneously dispersed in SC–NC film at an optimum clay concentration. The mechanical properties of SC–NC film are significantly improved, and the degree of crystallinity is decreased with increasing concentration of clay to indicate the superior biodegradability of the films. The SC–NC film exhibits better thermal features compared with an ordinary starch film. The swelling percentage of SC–NC film is also greatly decreased to be used as a packaging film.