Preparation and properties of biodegradable plastics prepared by using corn gluten meal

Corn Gluten Meal (CGM), is a byproduct from the wet milling of corn to yield starch. In order to utilize the CGM to produce the biodegradable plastics, the CGM was blended with glycerol which was used as the plasticizer, the mixture was extruded into pellets by the single-screw extruder, and then the pellets were hot-pressed as the specimens. The properties of the specimens were evaluated. The results showed that the specimens containing 20% of glycerol had the better mechanical properties. The established equation based on Halsey equation could predict the relationship between the tensile strength and relative humidity, and the experimental data fitted the equation well. Observation results using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) showed that the specimen had a uniform structure. The results of Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) showed that the specimen could keep thermal stability below 170℃.