Ball milling pretreatment facilitating α-amylase hydrolysis for production of starch-based bio-latex with high performance.

Starch based bio-latex has been widely researched in the coating paper area for the purpose of partial replacement of petroleum-based binders. In this paper, a green and facile ball milling pretreatment was proposed to modify the starch granules before α-amylase hydrolysis by breaking up their crystalline structure, thus improving the accessibility and susceptibility of amylase into starch structure. It was found that the improved hydrolysis process after 8 h ball milling can generate suitable degree of polymerization of polysaccharides or oligosaccharides, which further facilitated the following H ₂ O ₂ oxidation and SHMP crosslinking processes. In addition, a mechanism was also demonstrated to illustrate the improvement induced by ball milling pretreatment. The prepared bio-latex with crosslinking-structure performed excellent adhesive properties when substituted 25 % of petroleum-based latex during paper coating application, which showed great potential in improving the economic, cost, and environment benefits of traditional production of coated paper.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest We would like to submit the enclosed manuscript entitled “Ball milling pretreatment facilitating α-amylase hydrolysis for production of starch-based bio-latex with high performance”, which we wish to be considered as a research paper for publication in “Carbohydrate Polymers”. There is no conflict of interest in this submission. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described is original research that has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. The research in the manuscript has been conducted under the guidance of international ethical standards.
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