Synthesis and properties of fatty acid starch esters

Being completely bio-based, fatty acid starch esters (FASEs) are attractive materials that represent an alternative to crude oil-based plastics. In this study, two synthesis methods were compared in terms of their efficiency, toxicity and, especially, product solubility with starch laurate (C-12) as model compound. Laurates (DS > 2) were obtained through transesterification of fatty acid vinylesters in DMSO or reaction with fatty acid chlorides in pyridine. The latter lead to higher DS-values in a shorter reaction time. But due to the much better solubility of the products compared to lauroyl chloride esterified ones, vinylester-transesterification was preferred to optimize reaction parameters, where reaction time could be shortened to 2 h. FASEs C-6-C-18 were also successfully prepared via transesterification. To determine the DS of the resulting starch laurates, the efficient ATR-IR method was compared with common methods (elementary analysis, H-1 NMR). Molar masses (M-w) of the highly soluble starch laurates were analyzed using SEC-MALLS (THF). High recovery rates (>80%) attest to the outstanding solubility of products obtained through transesterification, caused by a slight disintegration during synthesis. Particle size distributions (DLS) demonstrated stable dissolutions in CHCI3 of vinyl laurate esterified - contrary to lauroyl chloride esterified starch. For all highly soluble FASEs (C-6-C-18), formation of concentrated solutions (10 wt%) is feasible. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.