Morphological and thermo-mechanical characterization of sweet potato starch based nanocomposites reinforced with barley starch nanoparticles

The aim of present study was to develop and characterize the biodegradable sweet potato starch-based nanocomposite films reinforced with barley starch nanoparticles (SNP). Sweet potato starch-based films with varying concentrations of barley SNP (5–25% w/w) were manufactured by adopting solution casting method using glycerol as a plasticizer. The morphology, thickness, transparency, water solubility, water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), tensile strength, elongation at break and thermal stability properties of nanocomposite films were evaluated. The results showed that the incorporation of barley SNP led to a significant increase in tensile strength from 2.63 (control film) to 8.98 MPa (nanocomposite with 15% (w/w) SNP). Compared with the native starch film, the surface of the nanocomposite films became more rough and uneven with the increasing concentration of nanofillers. High concentration of SNP (upto 25%, w/w) significantly decreased the transparency and WVTR, and water solubility (upto 20%, w/w) of nanocomposite films. The WVTR decreased from 3294.53 to 349.06 g/m2/24 h. In addition, the thermal stability of nanocomposites got improved after incorporation of SNP into starch-film matrix. © 2022, Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India).