Development of high strength potato starch nanocomposite films with excellent UV-blocking performance: Effect of heat moisture treatment synergistic with ligninsulfonic acid

The preparation biodegradable polymeric materials with both high strength and toughness remain elusive. In this thesis, potato starch (PS) nanocomposite films were fabricated through heat moisture treatment (HMT) synergistic with lignosulfonic acid (LA) nanoparticles (HMT-PS/LA). The results of mechanical properties indicated the optimal heat moisture treatment conditions and LA content were 110 ℃, 25% and 7 wt%, respectively. The fabricated HMT-PS/LA nanocomposite films exhibited a high tensile strength (TS) of 53.6 ± 1.6 MPa and a large elongation at break (E%) of 80.25 ± 2.9%, respectively, which were 1478% and 43.6% higher than those of PS film. In addition, the water content (WC) and water vapor permeability (WVP) of the HMT-PS/LA film decreased by 28% and 47.23%, respectively. Moreover, the HMT-PS/LA film presented superior UV-blocking performance and good biodegradability in four normal environments. Thus, this paper provided an innovative design strategy to obtain an outstanding polymer material with integrated strength and toughness.