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Author(s): C. J. L. Constantino, J. A. de Saja, M. A. Rodriguez-Perez, Miguel-Cngel RodrC-guez-PC)rez, R. D. Simoes

Keywords: amorphous, biodegradable materials, corn starch, density, differential scanning calorimetry (dsc), ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (eva), fillers, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ftir), hardness, homogeneous, melt flow index (mfi), particles, polymeric blends, polymers, scanning electron microscopy (sem), temperature, thermal conductivity, thermal properties testing, thermogravimetric analysis (tga), transient plane source (tps), transient plane source (tps) method

Abstract: Synthetic polymers in starch-based polymer formulations improve the thermal and mechanical properties of the compounds. The purpose of this study was to develop and analyze foams containing ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) and varying concentrations of corn starch. A Thermal Constants Analyser measured the thermal conductivity of the EVA/starch samples using the transient plane source (TPS) method. Results showed that the thermal conductivity of the blends increased with starch content. The porosities of all the samples were very similar, so the larger thermal conductivity enhancements that were observed for certain samples was due to a higher starch content.

Reference: Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 121, 4 (2011) 2324-2330

DOI: 10.1002/app.33946