Thermal Stability, Transparency, and Water Sensitivity Properties of Bleached, Cross-Linked Cassava Starch Film

Abstract

This work investigated a novel study of the effect of bleaching and cross-linking cassava starch film. Native cassava starch was bleached with hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), cross-linking was carried out with oxidized sucrose while glycerol was added to enhance the plasticity of the film. Operating temperature and time of 90 ^oC and 10 Minutes respectively with and addition of 0.5 ml of glycerol gave the best bleached, cross-linked cassava starch film. UV-visible spectrophotometer analysis revealed that the cassava starch film produced at the above reaction conditions retained 88.2 % of its transparency at 96 hours water immersion. The water solubility test shows that the film experienced 52.02 % weight loss after 96 hours immersion in water. The thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) shows a significant improvement on the thermal stability with Temperature peak (Tp) of 420.75 ^oC, compared to 374.13 ^oC Tp of the control sample (unbleached, uncross-linked) of the cassava starch film.