The improvement of biodegradable films used in the packaging industry has been possible through

nanotechnology (Fadeyibi et al., 2016). The development of nanocomposites (insertion of

nanomaterials in polymers) is a strategy to improve the properties of polymers, such as
mechanical resistance, thermal stability, gas barrier and biodegradation (Bratovčić et al., 2015).
Nanocomposites are incorporated into a wide variety of systems and include organic and / or
inorganic materials with one, two or three dimensions, smaller than 100 nm (Mhd Haniffa et al.,
2016). The potentially most efficient processes that have been tested to produce starch
nanoparticles are: the precipitation of amorphous starch, the combination of complex formation
and enzymatic hydrolysis, and microfluidization. Because these processes are very different, the
resulting nanoparticles have different properties, crystallinity, and shape. Starch nanocrystals are
crystalline platelets resulting from the disruption of the semicrystalline structure of starch
granules by acid hydrolysis of the amorphous regions (Le Corre and Angellier-Coussy, 2014). Starch
nanoparticles have been used as reinforcing fillers in films, however, the polar surface and
hydrophilicity of these nanoparticles result in poor dispersibility in nonpolar solvents and
insufficient compatibility with hydrophobic polymers, which limits their application in hydrophobic
systems; in this sense, Jiang et al. (2016) created amphiphilic starch nanoparticles using octenyl
succinic anhydride. Through tests, the data showed a new absorption peak (carbonyl peak) that
indicated the formation of the ester bond, it was confirmed that the esterification reaction
occurred mainly in the amorphous regions of the nanoparticles and that the amphiphilicity
increased with the increase of the degree of substitution. Starch granules are suitable stabilizers
for Pickering emulsions (Matos et al., 2013). Saari et al. (2016) produced starch nanoparticles by
dissolution and nanoprecipitation for use in Pickering emulsions, managing to reduce the size of
the emulsion droplet and the amount of starch used for emulsion stabilization. Shi et al. (2016)
manufactured emulsified films, where the film-forming emulsion was based on Pickering
emulsions stabilized with colloidal particles of zein and chitosan. Oxygen permeability decreased
by an order of magnitude 1-4 relative to films with chitosan. This work opens the possibility for the
production of emulsified films with better oxygen barrier capacity by the Pickering stabilization
route.