Michigan State University

Boo-Young Shin

Sunder Balakrishnan

Ramani Narayan

Philippe Dubois

Yogaraj Nabar

Jean-Marie Raquez

Raamani Narayan

A new starch-vegetable oil graft copolymer, wherein the vegetable oil has been reacted onto the starch backbone using thermal or free radical initiators has been produced in a twin-screw co-rotating extruder. The starch-vegetable oil graft copolymer can further be reinforced with biofiber in the presence of an optional modifier such as maleic anhydride by reactive extrusion processing to form composites suitable to be injection molded into biodegradable articles.

Starch-vegetable oil graft copolymers and their biofiber composites, and a process for their manufacture

A chemically modified plasticized starch (CMPS) is prepared by reacting starch with an organic dibasic acid or an anhydride of the acid in the presence of a plasticizer using optional free radical initiators, and optionally with the incorporation of nano clays in the reactive extrusion process. The starch is thermoplastic and has a lower viscosity than the traditional thermoplastic starch. The CMPS is useful in preparing starch polymer compositions which are at least partially biodegradable.

Chemically modified plasticized starch compositions by extrusion processing

Growing community of inventors

Kyoungsan, South Korea

Boo-Young Shin