Starch content evaluation tests of the starch-based polymers; a review

Starch is a widely used material in the production of green and bio-based polymers. Compounding of starch with synthetic polymers such as polyolefins, polyesters, and polyvinyl alcohol increases their biodegradability. The application of these compounds is in disposable food packaging, textile, medical and health industries, etc. Starch content determining of the starch compounds is one of the important evaluations that should be done with a different standard or analytical ways, to be classified and verified such products. Differents chemical and analytical methods proposed to measure the amount of starch in the starch compounds like phenol sulfuric acid method, calorimetric test, Fourie transform infrared spectroscopy, and an Iranian national standard No. 14000, which it was considered in this research. From the researchers’ results, it can be concluded that the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is the simplest method for this evaluation with moderate accuracy. However, the calorimetric method is the faster method with more accuracy comparing to the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy method.