Synthesis and characterization of corn starch based green composites reinforced with Saccharum spontaneum L graft copolymers prepared under micro-wave and their effect on thermal, physio-chemical and mechanical properties

In this paper, green composites of the corn starch were developed by using resorcinol-formaldehyde (Rf) as the cross-linking agent and reinforced with graft copolymers Saccharaum spontaneum L(Ss) and methyl methacrylates (MMA) as principal monomer and its binary mixture with acrylamide (AAm), acrylonitrile(AN), acrylic acid (AA) prepared under micro-wave. The matrix and composites were found to be thermally more stable than the natural corn starch backbone. There was improvement in physico-chemical and mechanical properties of composite were found to exhibit better than matrix. Ss-g-poly(MMA)-MW reinforced composites were found to exhibit better tensile strength, on the other hand Ss-g-poly(MMA + AA)-MW reinforced composites showed maximum compressive strength and wear resistance than other graft copolymers reinforced composite and the basic matrix. Further the matrix and composites were subjected for biodegradation studies through soil composting method. Different stages of biodegradation were evaluated through FT-IR studies and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) techniques.