Thermogravimetric analysis of starch-based biodegradable blends

Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) has been shown to be a useful technique to determine the content of starch and other components that are usually present in blends of starch with synthetic polymers. However, some of these blends are composed of elements with an important superposition in their temperature degradation range. In these cases interpretation of the TGA results becomes quite difficult and usually important errors are committed in the determination of blend composition We present here a method to improve the accuracy of the interpretation of TGA data. The analysis was developed to study blends containing starch, an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer, and water plus glycerin as plasticizers. Using this procedure it is possible to predict blend composition with an error less than 3%, even when there is an appreciable superposition between the temperature degradation range of starch and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol). As the proposed method of analysis is quite general it may be extended to be used with other types of blends that give thermograms with similar characteristics to those described in this paper.