A study of specific heat capacity functions of polyvinyl alcohol-cassava starch blends

The specific heat capacity (C sp) of polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) blends with cassava starch (CSS) was studied by the differential scanning calorimetry method. Specimens of PVOH-CSS blends: PPV37 (70mass% CSS) and PPV46 (60mass% CSS) were prepared by a melt blending method with glycerol added as a plasticizer. The results showed that the specific heat capacity of PPV37 and PPV46 at temperatures from 330 K to 530 K increased from (2.963 to 14.995) J ? g-1 ? K-1 and (2.517 to 14.727) J ? g-1 ? K-1, respectively. The specific heat capacity of PVOH-CSS depends on the amount of starch. The specific heat capacity of the specimens can be approximated by polynomial equations with a curve fitting regression >0.99For instance, the specific heat capacity (in J ? g-1 ? K-1) of PPV37 can be expressed by C sp = -17.824 + 0.063T and PPV46 by C sp = -18.047 + 0.0617", where T is the temperature (in K)