Scientific publications
A.G Gouater Issola
Alexis Ngueteu Kamlo
Arnaud Maxime Cheumani Yona
JOURNAL OF RENEWABLE MATERIALS
Chemical modification of cassava starch by transesterification of a vegetable oil (palm kernel oil) using aluminum chloride as a Lewis acid catalyst was achieved under relatively mild conditions (temperature 60–110 °C; atmospheric pressure). The reaction was carried out without any additional solvent. The modified starch was characterized by degree of substitution (DS), FTIR, X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis. DS of 0.09 to 0.53 were obtained. The cassava starch presented an X-ray diffraction pattern of a type A starch. X-ray analyses showed that the reaction did not significantly affect the crystallinity of starch. The modified starch films (MStF) adsorbed less water than the reference native starch film (NStF) at all the relative humidities investigated. The MStF were also less soluble in water. The tensile tests showed an increase of the strength and a decrease of the flexibility of MStF compared to the reference NStF. The results showed that this chemical route could be used to increase the water resistance of starch-based materials.
