Micro and Nano Structuring as Method to Enhance the Functional Properties of Starch-Based Polymeric Materials

Abstract

The use of starch, the second most abundant natural resource in the word, as polymer is unprofitable and limited by certain functional properties. The structuring of multiphase polymeric materials represents the process of diminishing the dispersed phases till micro-and/or nano-dimensions and the positioning of the resulted fields in an order through which the properties of interest are achieved as far as possible. The structuring is reached by controlling the interface properties for achieving physical, chemical, biological or rheological compatibilization, mainly by melt compounding procedure. The chapter proves that the structuring of starch-based multiphases polymeric systems by reactive compatibilization is a good possibility to guarantee the functional properties, required by sustainable applications, of interest even in 2050 perspective. The chapter underlines also that the structuring by reactive compatibilization is connected with the formulation designing and choosing of the melt-compounding conditions in such a manner for the chemical bonding of the minority phases with the main polymeric matrix and therefore increasing the component miscibility and the functional properties of the resulted materials till the requirements of the sustainable applications.