Corn starch nanofilaments obtained by electrospinning

Until today, there are not reports of nanofilaments from starch. Therefore, the aim of this research was to find the conditions for obtaining nanofilaments from natural polymers by the electrospinning process. An electrospinning prototype system built at laboratory was used. The performance of native corn starch water suspension (control), and succinated corn starch mixed with water, glycerol and surfactant were evaluated by electrospinning. Several processing parameters were critical for obtaining nanofilaments, among them were distance between needle and collector, voltage, conductivity, dielectric constant as well as water suspension viscosity. Native starch was not appropriate for obtaining nanofilaments due to particles agglomeration by retrogradation. To overcome those problems, several mixtures of succinated starch, surfactant Tween-20 and glycerol were evaluated. The viscosity was reduced from 664 cP in native starch mixture to 28 cP in succinated corn starch/Tween 20/glycerol, and the resulting low viscosity together with high dielectric constant >253 were adequated for achieving nanofilament of average diameter of 200 nm by electrospinning due to formation of Taylor’s cone. Corn starch nanofilaments have several amazing characteristics making them optimal for many applications as scaffolds in regenerative medicine, thickeners and glues in other industries.