SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND STUDY OF THE PROPERTIES OF STARCH LAURATE OBTAINED FROM A STARCH EXTRACTED FROM MANGO TOMMY ATKINS
Starch, Transesterification, Vinyl laurate.
After processing of mango in pulp and juices industries, tons of residues such as shell and seed are discarded without proper use. About 15% to 20% of the weight of the mango, depending on its variety, is due to the seed, from which it is possible to obtain the starch. In order to add value to this residue, this study aimed to produce an ester from mango starch (Tommy Atkins), through the transesterification reaction of vinyl laurate (LV) with starch. The synthesis was performed in the presence of a basic catalyst (K2CO3) in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at 110 ° C and N2 (g). The product was purified by precipitation in methanol and characterized by infrared spectroscopy with Fourier transform (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TG), solubility tests and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR confirmed the starch laurate was obtained, by displacing the C=O band from the vinyl ester at 1759 cm-1, to 1743 cm-1 in vinyl laurate, due to satured ester in the modified starch. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the modified starch has higher thermal stability than its precursors and than a physical mixture of starch and vinyl laurate. Solubility tests also confirmed the chemical modification, since, unlike the starch, the product was soluble in toluene and chloroform, and remained insoluble in water and DMSO. SEM data showed that crystalline domains on starch were broken after chemical modification and the appearance shown in micrograph is unstructured (amorphous).