Exploring novel organocatalytic-acetylated pea starch blends in the development of hot-pressed bioplastics

Acetylated starch shows enhanced thermal stability and moisture resistance, but its compatibilization with other more hydrophilic polysaccharides remains poor or unknown. In this study, the feasibility of thermomechanically compounding organocatalytically acetylated pea starch (APS), produced at two different degrees of substitution with alkanoyl groups (DSacyl, 0.39 and 1.00), with native pea starch (NPS), high (HMP) and low methoxyl (LMP) citrus pectin, and sugar beet pectin (SBP, a naturally acetylated pectin) for developing hot-pressed bioplastics was studied. Generally, APS decreased hydrogen bonding (ATR-FTIR) and crystallinity (XRD) of NPS films at different levels, depending on its DSacyl. The poor compatibility between APS and NPS or HMP was confirmed by ATR-FTIR imaging. Contrariwise, APS with DSacyl 1 was effectively thermomechanically mixed with the acety-lated SBP matrix, maintaining homogeneous distribution within it (ATR-FTIR imaging). APS (any DSacyl) significantly increased the visible/UV light opacity of NPS-based films and decreased their water vapor trans-mission rate (WVTR, by ca. 11 %) and surface water wettability (by ca. 3 times). In comparison to NPS-APS films, pectin-APS showed higher visible/UV light absorption, tensile strength (ca.2.9-4.4 vs ca.2.4 MPa), and Young's modulus (ca.96-116 vs ca.60-70 MPa), with SBP-APS presenting significantly lower water wettability than the rest of the films.