Effect of surfactants on the size-distribution of starch nanoparticles during wet grinding

Conventional and non-conventional surfactants were utilized to fabricate corn-starch nanoparticles. The surfactants used were pluronic F-68, span 20, Aerosol TR and Aerosol OT. Starch, in premix with either of the surfactants with concentration 0.5% to 2% were grinded in Netsch MiniCer(R) laboratory circulation machine (Netsch, Germany) at 25 Hz. Zicronium beads of 1mm diameter were used as the grinding media. At 0.5 hr grinding time, 0.5% pluronic reduced corn starch to the lowest size of 335 +/- 5.57 nm. The other surfactants yielded particle size equal to or above 382 +/- 9.5 nm. However, with 1 hr grinding, 1 pluronic F-68 reduced the particle size of corn starch to the minimum level of 353 +/- 14.50 nm. At 1 hr grinding, the other surfactants reduced the size equal to or above 399 +/- 9.50 nm. The lowest PDI was 0.393 +/- 0.06 and 0.417 +/- 0.02, respectively with 1% TR-OT at 0.5 hr and 2% TR-OT at 1 hr grinding. Pluronic demonstrated the highest efficiency in size reduction followed by ATR-AOT (1:4).