Abstract:
Starch, produced by many plants as a source of stored energy, is a natural, renewable, and biodegradable polymer. After cellulose, it is the most abundant semicrystalline biomass material in nature. There has been extensive and focused research on this important natural material leading to many new materials. These include nanocrystals, modified starch, or development of “green” biocomposites based on starch in combination with cellulosic natural fibers by blending with various biopolymer matrices. Such attempts have exponentially increased in recent times compared to the use of starch in hydrocarbon polymers for modification to improve biodegradability in packaging applications. The biomedical use of biodegradable starch composites as a functional material in combination with biopolymers by tuning some of the properties such as water absorption and bioactivity is an emerging field. Taking account of these, this chapter, while presenting various natural resources of starch, discusses their utilization, modification, and production of their nanocrystals. Various characterization methods and the available results of all these including nano/micromorphologies are presented. Applications of all types of starches particularly of their utilization in the development of “green” composites as functional materials with special reference to biomedical field and various polymer composites studied both natural and synthetic polymer matrices in various forms, and their processing methodologies and interfacial property improvement strategies are discussed. Finally, future perspectives of the starch composites such as an advanced functional material are also presented, which may open up new avenues for the new technologies and business opportunities.
