Alassmy, Yasser A.Yasser A.AlassmyAbduljawad, Marwan M.Marwan M.AbduljawadAl‐shamrani, Khalid M.Khalid M.Al‐shamraniAlnafisah, Mohammed S.Mohammed S.AlnafisahEl Nokab, Mustapha El HaririMustapha El HaririEl NokabPour, Zahra AsgarZahra AsgarPourGomes, Diego R.Diego R.GomesYolcu, SelinSelinYolcuSebakhy, Khaled O.Khaled O.Sebakhy2023-01-132023-01-132023-03Journal of Applied Polymer Science 140 (10): e53585 (2023)http://hdl.handle.net/11420/14571Production of renewable and modified starch-based products was achievedusing a sustainable catalyst and an environmentally friendly drying process viasupercritical CO2. Potato starch was modified via a sustainable and green ester-ification process with acetic anhydride reagent implementing a novel organo-catalytic pathway at different periods of time (0.5, 3 and 7 h) by applying anesterification reaction at 120°C targeting intermediate degrees of substitution(i.e., 0.2 < DS <1.5) finding potential applications as polymer packaging mate-rials. The final modified samples were divided into two fractions, where the firstfraction was dried under vacuum at 80°C for 24 h and the second fraction wasdried under supercritical CO2at 40°C and 100 bars for 2 h. The final productswere analyzed using an array of characterization techniques such as Fouriertransform infrared (FTIR), Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), scan-ning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2physisorption,thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), andKarl Fischer. The chemical structure of both fractions was similar as confirmedby the different characterization techniques. Drying under supercritical CO2pre-served some pores in the modified starch materials as opposed to thermal ovendrying, as was confirmed by N2physisorption measurements. The degree of sub-stitution (DS) was determined using three different techniques; titration, highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and solution state proton nuclearmagnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy and the values were greater than 0.2 and less than 1.5 indicating intermediate degrees of substitution.en1097-4628202310IngenieurwissenschaftenJournal Article10.1002/app.53585Journal Article