Chemical Modification of Starch with Synthetic

Abstract

An alternative for solving the environmental pollution problems generated by conventional plastics, it is the chemical modifications graft-type of the starch with synthetic polymers of post-consumer and in situ polymerizations on the starch granules. The starch modified by this methodology allows to counteract the disadvantages of both polymers such as the little or no biodegradability of the synthetic polymer and the poor mechanical properties of the starch. In the present study, a review on the chemical modification of starch with syn- thetic polymers by grafting is carried out. Factors affecting the copolymerization reactions of starch-g-synthetic polymer were analyzed, for example, their chemical nature, solubility, size and length of polymer chains, temperature, catalyst and starch/amylose content, as well as their characterization chemistry and the potentials applications of this copolymer.