Green preparation and characterization of starch nanoparticles using a vacuum cold plasma process combined with ultrasonication treatment

• Published in: Ultrasonics sonochemistry 2019-11, Vol.58, p.104660-104660, Article 104660
• Main Authors: Chang, Ranran, Ji, Na, Li, Man, Qiu, Lizhong, Sun, Chunrui, Bian, Xiliang, Qiu, Hongwei, Xiong, Liu, Sun, Qingjie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Depolymerization; Nanocrystals; Reactive species; Waxy corn starch
• ISSN: 1350-4177; 1873-2828
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104660

•Starch nanoparticles (SNPs) were obtained via plasma combined with ultrasonication.•The approach had the merit not to use any chemicals and used water as the solvent.•The preparation process of SNPs only took 10 or 15 min.•Partial oxidation of starch by plasma treatment led to SNPs with negative carboxy groups.•The SNPs exhibited spherical (10–50 nm) and square-like shapes (100–150 nm). In this study, starch nanoparticles (SNPs) were fabricated via a facile and green method involving a vacuum low-temperature plasma process combined with rapid ultrasonication treatment using waxy corn starch (WCS) and potato starch (PS). Morphology, size, crystalline structure, thermal property, and stability analyses of the SNPs were systematically performed. The obtained SNPs exhibited good uniformity and almost perfect spherical and square shapes. The zeta potential and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results confirmed that the SNPs were covered with negative carboxyl groups (zeta potential ranging from −21.8 ± 1.06 to −9.78 ± 0.89 mV). The gelatinization enthalpy of SNPs from PS significantly decreased, changing from 16.63 ± 0.91 to 9.81 ± 0.19 J/g. However, the crystal patterns of SNPs from the WCS and PS after plasma and ultrasonic treatments did not change. The crystallinity of SNPs from PS decreased from 45.2% to 16.5%. This novel approach to preparing SNPs is low cost, simple and green. The developed SNPs could have great potential in the food, biomedical, and material industries.