Composites of thermoplastic starch (TPS) with titanium dioxide particles (mTiO2; average size 0.1μm) with very homogeneous matrix and well-dispersed filler were prepared by a two-step method, including solution casting (SC) followed by melt mixing (MM). Light and scanning electron microscopy confirmed that only the two-step procedure (SC+MM) resulted in ideally homogeneous TPS/mTiO2 systems. The composites prepared by single-step MM contained non-plasticized starch granules and the composites prepared by single-step SC suffered from mTiO2 agglomeration. Dynamic mechanical measurements showed an increase modulus with increasing filler concentration. In TPS containing 3wt.% of mTiO2 the stiffness was enhanced by >40%. Further experiments revealed that the recommended addition of chitosan or the exchange of mTiO2 for anisometric titanate nanotubes with high aspect ratio did not improve the properties of the composites.

Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Heyrovsky Sq 2 162 06 Prague 6 Czech Republic

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