We report the advantages and disadvantages of acid and alkaline catalyses for corn starch acetylation through the comparison of the acetylation processes and physical properties of the products. The objective of this research is to further enhance the industrial competitiveness of starch acetate against other thermoplastics. Efforts have been made to modify starch via acetylation to develop biodegradable thermoplastic materials with good physiochemical and functional properties. However, based on our knowledge, there were no comparisons of the pros and cons of acid and alkaline catalyses based on acetylation efficiency and physical properties of the products. In this work, starch acetates were prepared from corn starch using acetic anhydride as the acetylating agent, and effects of the reaction conditions on reaction efficiency and properties of the products were studied. Our results demonstrate that the current method which has been broadly accepted may not be the best approach for starch acetylation.

Comparing acid and alkaline catalyses of starch acetylation

239th National Meeting (2010)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.