Freely Moldable Modified Starch As a Sustainable and Recyclable Plastic

Efficiently preparing a starch-based plastic with moisture insensitivity and toughness is a challenge to improve the high-value utilization of polysaccharide resources. Herein, a sustainable, recyclable starch-based plastic was prepared in a facile and eco-friendly way. First, starch acetoacetate (SAA) with different degrees of substitution (DSs) was synthesized by transesterification. Then, the SAA film was obtained through a solvent-free hot-pressing method. Notably, SAA with different DSs exhibited various glass transition temperatures (109-140 °C), and SAA with high DS (>0.84) was insoluble even after boiling in water for 1 h. Also, the maximum fracture strength of SAA film up to 15.5 MPa and a maximum elongation at break up to 30% were reached . In addition, the starch-based plastic film retained the original mechanical properties after three cycles of hot processing. In consideration of the facile preparation process, this protocol provided a new avenue for developing sustainable and recyclable starch-based plastics.