Nano Starch As a Replacement for Latex Paint

A child takes on environment-friendly nano paint.

Nano literally means "one billionth," but in paint manufacturing it refers to mixing microscopic substances. Nano-technology developed because conventional paint mixing techniques failed to produce reliable color or coverage.

Nano starch paints are formed by melting starch or using a solvent to dissolve it, then combining it with silica-based clay. The combination, known as a "nanocomposite," is then applied to plastic or other surfaces as a paint.

Nano Starch versus Latex Paint

Starch-based paints are nontoxic and thus kid- and pet-friendly. In addition, nano starch paints are environmentally friendlier than synthetic paints such as latex because the chemicals byproducts of nano starch manufacturing and the paints themselves are biodegradable.

Nano Not New

In fourth to eighth century A.D., Mayan Indians mixed indigo with clay in the earliest recorded example of a nanocomposite. In 1912, German Kurt Gottlob (German patents 254 & 255) patented a starch-based paint.

By the 1970s, the Arab oil embargo raised the cost of producing organic feed crops and solvents such as starches. As a result, paint manufacturers chose to make water-based paints such as latex. As of 2009, modern nano starch paints are commonly used in the plastics and food industries because they are antimicrobial, resist breakdown by UV radiation, and bond more strongly to plastic than latex paints.

Nano Starch Paint Drawbacks

Starch-based paint, unless it is combined with a "plasticizer," dries brittle and does not repel water. Including a plasticizer for flexibility in starch and clay nanocomposites creates paint that is more resistant to water, weather and temperature, longer-lasting, stronger and less brittle.

Synthetic paints such as latex are currently five times less expensive to produce than nano starch alternatives.

Nano Starch Paint Progress

Starch-based paint manufacturing costs continue to drop as nano technology advances. Because of environmental regulations requiring a reduction in greenhouse gases, cost-effective nano starch technology, manufacturing processes and factories are being developed.

Nano Starch Paint Potential

Although starch-based paint production techniques need further development, nanocomposites have "huge potential in the future," according to Polymer Engineer P. Halley and Food Scientists R. Zhao and P. Torley.

"Plastics Technology," predicts that, "Use of renewable natural resources to produce plastics will explode over the next half-century as oil and other energy sources become scarcer and more costly." Plastic industry experts forsee nano starch pigments becoming comparable in price to synthetics like latex, and the Materials Research Society opines that biologically renewable starches could replace synthetic pigments.

References

• The Free Dictionary: Nano
• Materials Research Society: Green Nano-Composites
• NDSU Stuart Croll 2009: History of Paint Science and Technology
• China Quality Crafts: Inorganic Nano Binders for Various Paints
• IOPscience- Nanotechnology: Functional Behaviour of Polypropylene/ZnO--soluble Starch Nanocomposites

Resources

• Journal of Materials Science: Emerging Biodegradable Materials: Starch-based Bio-nanocomposites
• Environmentally Benign Synthesis of Nanosized CoxZn1-xAl2O4 Blue Pigments
• Bio-Nanotechnology Conference Trade Show: Effect of Starch Structure on Starch-based Nanocomposite
• Plastics Technology: Headlines for the Next 50 Years- Biopolymer Revolution Arrives
• Family Education: Starch Painting