Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The use of synthetic and natural biodegradable plastics has been severely limited due to their strong sensitivity to processing conditions such as temperature. The object of our research is to develop novel biodegradable thermoplastic compositions and processing methods for making plastic articles reproducibly from soy protein isolate and corn starch. This paper discusses viable biodegradable soy protein-starch plastic that can be extruded and injection molded into articles of various shapes and sizes. The thermal and mechanical properties of the plastic indicate that it may be useful in many applications where the plastic must biodegrade in an environmentally-benign manner after service. Blending the biodegradable soy protein plastic with novel polyphosphate fillers greatly reduced its water sensitivity, allowing new uses in moist and load-bearing environments where the unfilled biodegradable plastic is not useable.

Keywords

polymer processing biodegradable plastic water-resistant biodegradable plastic composite soy protein plastic polyphosphate glasses

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

1. Beckel, A. C. , G. H. Brother and L. L. McKinney . 1938. Ind. Eng. Chem., 30:436-440.

2. Brother, G. H. and L. L. McKinney . 1938. nd. Eng. Chem., 30:1136-1140.

3. Salzberg, H. K. 1969. In Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology, Vol. 11, 696-701.

4. Otaigbe, J. U. and J. Jane . 1997. J. Env. Polym. Degrad., 5:75-80.

5. Otaigbe, J. U. and D. O. Adams . 1997. J. Env. Polym. Degrad., 5:199-208.

6. Jane, J. , S. Lim , I. Pateau , K. Spence and S. Wang . 1994. In Polymers from Agricultural Coproducts, ACS, Chap. 6, pp. 92-100.

7. Jane, J. 1993. In Fundamentals of Biodegradable Polymers and Materials ( D. Kaplan , et al. , eds.). Lancaster, PA: Technomic Publishing Co., Inc. pp. 63-73.

8. Pateau, I. , C.-Z. Chen and J. Jane . 1994. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 33:1821-1827.

9. Schilling, C. H. , T. Babcock , S. Wang and J. Jane . 1995. J. Mater Res., 10:1-6.

10.

10. Zoller, P. , P. Bolli , V. Pahud and H. Ackerman . 1976. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 47:948-952.

11.

11. Millauer, C. , G. Rosa and R. Schar . 1993. In Plant Polymeric Carbohydrates ( F. Meuser , D. J. Manners and W. Seibel , eds.), Cambridge: The Royal Society of Chemistry.

12.

12. Willett, J. L. , 1996. Starch, 48:154-156.

13.

13. Pateau, I. 1993. M.S. Thesis, Iowa State University.

14.

14. Otaigbe, J. U. 1998. Plastics Engineering, 54(4):37-39.

15.

15. Spence, K. E. , A. L. Allen , S. Wang and J. Jane . 1995. In Hydrogels and Biodegradable Polymers for Bioapplications ( R. M. Ottenbrite , S. J. Huang and K. Park , eds.), ACS Symposium Series 621, Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society.

Processability and Properties of Biodegradable Plastics Made from Agricultural Biopolymers

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References