Preparation and Properties of Glycerol Plasticized-Corn Starch/Titanium Dioxide-Starch Bionanocomposites

A bionanocomposite was cast using TiO 2 nanoparticles stabilized by soluble starch (nanoTiO 2 ) as filler in a glycerol plasticized-pea starch (GPS) matrix. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results show that TiO 2 nanoparitlces were encapsulated by starch partly in nanoTiO 2 particles of about 20 nm. In GPS/nanoTiO 2 nanocomposites, loading a low level of nanoTiO 2 particles improved the mechanical properties When the nanoTiO 2 content varied from 0 to 4 wt%, the tensile yield strength and Young’s modulus increased from 2.11 to 8.35 MPa and from 21.3 to 211.6 MPa respectively. The improvement in these properties may be attributed to the interaction between the nanoTiO 2 filler and GPS matrix.