CORN PROTEIN BASED BLENDS FOR BIOPLASTIC APPLICATIONS ARDRA P and KARTHIK VENKATESHAN IDEA 3D, Technology Business Incubator, BITS PILANI Hyderabad Campus, India Acknowledgement: Conventional Plastics  Non-renewable source and non-biodegradable Polymers form natural resources  Biodegradable, abundant and renewable  Plant proteins ZEIN  Alcohol soluble protein from corn  Biocompatible, biodegradable and GRAS status [1]  Thermoplasticity in presence of suitable plasticizers  Edible – used in food and pharmaceutical applications  Zein only films– brittleness – require plasticizer for processing [2]  Zein-synthetic polymer blends -PVP, PCL, polyethylene, nylon, etc - improved mechanical properties [3] Introduction 1 Significance & Applications  Zein-blends – biodegradable plastics – replacement for plastic  Ease of processability and biodegradability  Bioplastic applications – biodegradable fibers, food packaging, bio- adhesives, ceramics, inks, chewing gum, hydrophobic coatings etc.  Healthcare application - tissue engineering scaffolds and drug delivery systems [1] 5 Product Development 4 2 Objective of the study To develop zein based blends which can be used as bioplastics and to explore some of its possible applications In this study we use two synthetic polymers:  Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)  Polyacrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) Zein : PVA blend formulation process: Zein:ABS blend Extrusion: Formulation Procedure 3 1.Paliwal R1, Palakurthi S. (2014) Zein in controlled drug delivery and tissue engineering J Control Release, 189: Huey-Min Lai and Graciela W. Padua, (1997) Properties and Microstructure of Plasticized Zein Films. Cereal Chem. 74(6):771– Corradini et al., (2014) Recent advances in food-packing, pharmaceutical and biomedical applications of zein and zein-based materials. Int. J. Mol. Sci, 15, References 6 Dip coating Fig.2 Zein-PVA blend dip coated on (a) silicone (b) ceramic (c) glass surface a b c Scaffold development Fig.6 porous scaffold developed from Zein-PVA blend after overnight immersion in water followed by drying Oil-water separation Fig. 4 (a) zein powder attract the oil particles to form a mat (b) Zein-PVA blend film with oil droplets adhering to top surface a b flowability Proper Processing Temperature Correct viscosity of material Molecular weight of the polymers uniformity Mixing temperature, speed, duration Concentration/ weight ratios of components solidification Drying time Drying temperature Consistency Texture, Color No phase separation (no visible boundary) BIOPLASTIC Zein powder Zein-synthetic polymer blend Zein + ABS (80:20) Filabot single screw extruder (set extrusion temperature) Filament Extrusion into filaments Fig.3 extruded filaments of (a)Zein-PVA blend (b) Zein-ABS blend filament Injection molding Encapsulation Fig. 5 Fertilizer encapsulated zein gel a b c d Fig.7 Injection molded samples (a) injection molding process (b) zein sheet with 20% plasticizer (c,d) zein-PVA blend Fig.1Extrusion of Zein ABS blends