Scognamiglio Fabrizio, Gattia Daniele Mirabile, Roselli Graziella, Persia Franca, De Angelis Ugo, Santulli Carlo
Technologies and Diagnostics for Conservation and Restoration Laboratory, School of Science and Technology, University of Camerino, Via Pacifici Mazzoni 2, 63100 Ascoli Piceno, Italy.
Department of Sustainability SSPT-ENEA-Casaccia Research Center, Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Rome, Italy.
Materials (Basel). 2020 Feb 23;13(4):1000. doi: 10.3390/ma13041000.
Opuntia cladodes are a typical vegetable waste, from which mucilage in gel form can be extracted. This work proposes blending it with a self-produced thermoplastic starch (TPS), originating from potato starch with a high content in glycerol (ca. 30%). Three methods were compared for extraction, bare maceration (MA), mechanical blending (ME) and mechanical blending following maceration (MPM) to produce films with an approximate thickness of 150 μm. For the comparison, tensile testing, differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy were used. The MPM process proved the most effective, not only for extraction yielding, but also to obtain a larger deformation of the samples with respect to the one allowed by the pure TPS films. A considerable plasticization effect was observed. Despite this, the mechanical performance is still not completely satisfactory, and the expected effect of the calcium and magnesium salts contained in the mucilage to improve the rigidity of the TPS film was not really revealed. Prospected improvements would concern the fabrication process and the investigation of other possible loading modes and sample geometries.
仙人掌茎是一种典型的蔬菜废料，从中可以提取凝胶状的黏液。这项工作提出将其与自制的热塑性淀粉（TPS）混合，该热塑性淀粉由甘油含量高（约30%）的马铃薯淀粉制成。比较了三种提取方法，即单纯浸渍法（MA）、机械共混法（ME）和浸渍后机械共混法（MPM），以制备厚度约为150μm的薄膜。为了进行比较，使用了拉伸试验、差示扫描量热法和扫描电子显微镜。结果证明，MPM工艺不仅在提取产量方面最有效，而且相对于纯TPS薄膜，能使样品产生更大的变形。观察到了相当大的增塑效果。尽管如此，机械性能仍不完全令人满意，黏液中所含钙盐和镁盐改善TPS薄膜刚性的预期效果并未真正显现出来。预期的改进将涉及制造工艺以及对其他可能的加载方式和样品几何形状的研究。
