The study focuses on structure-properties relationships in thermoplastic cassava starch (TPS) based biocomposites comprising 5–20 wt% of untreated and treated rice husk (RH). Alkaline treatment with 11% w/v NaOH removed the hemicellulose layer of RH as confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and resulted in a larger population of –OH groups exposing on the fibril surface. Consequently, the filler-matrix interactions between treated RH and TPS were enhanced, although Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis indicated that the surface area of treated RH was not increased. Interestingly, the biocomposites contained 20 wt% treated RH showed substantially improved tensile strength by a factor of 220% compared to the neat TPS. The biocomposite at 15 wt% treated RH showed high water absorption. TPS with all treated RH contents showed high biodegradation rate, while the thermal stability of the TPS/treated RH biocomposites was slightly decreased. These novel composites showed promising properties for applications as absorbents.

这项研究集中于基于热塑性木薯淀粉（TPS）的生物复合材料的结构-特性关系，该复合材料中有5–20 wt％的未处理和已处理稻壳（RH）。傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和热重分析（TGA）证实，用11％w / v NaOH碱处理除去了RH的半纤维素层，并导致大量的–OH基团暴露在原纤维表面。因此，尽管Brunauer-Emmett-Teller表面积分析表明处理过的RH的表面积没有增加，但处理过的RH和TPS之间的填料-基质相互作用得到了增强。有趣的是，与纯TPS相比，包含20 wt％处理过的RH的生物复合材料的拉伸强度显着提高了220％。在15 wt％的相对湿度下，该生物复合材料显示出高吸水率。所有处理过的RH含量的TPS均显示出较高的生物降解率，而TPS /处理过的RH生物复合材料的热稳定性略有下降。这些新颖的复合材料在用作吸收剂方面显示出令人鼓舞的性能。