Preparation of starch/PVA nanoparticles and evaluation of their ability to stabilize Pickering emulsions.

Biodegradable and biocompatible polymer-based nanoparticles (NPs) hold great promise for various industries. We report the first development of composite NPs consisting of starch (St) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) using the nanoprecipitation technique with ethanol as an antisolvent. We varied the St:PVA ratios in the precursor solutions to evaluate their impact on the structure and properties of the composite NPs.

Effect of fibrous TiO filler on the structural, mechanical, barrier and optical characteristics of biodegradable maize starch/PVA composite films.

The work focuses on producing and evaluating "green" multifunctional film materials based on a mixed eco-friendly starch/PVA matrix and filled with fibrous TiO particles formed by the ultrasound-assisted biotemplate method. Starch/PVA/TiO film-forming dispersions were prepared by heating and intensively mixing the components at the same time, and then composite films were obtained by the casting method. The influence of the TiO filler content on the morphological and structural characteristics of the composites was studied by the optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, DSC and FTIR spectroscopy methods.