THE POTENTIAL OF NATIVE STARCH BIOMASS TO PRODUCE MATERIALS FOR ENERGY APPLICATIONS

Starch is widely used in the food, packaging, paper, and biomedical industries, primarily sourced from commercial crops such as potato, maize, corn, cassava, and wheat. However, native Andean potatoes, despite their high starch content and genetic diversity, remain underutilized in industrial applications. These varieties are often overlooked in favor of commercial starch sources. They are usually considered non-commercially viable due to cosmetic defects, irregular sizes, or overproduction surpluses. In this study, starch extracted from a native Andean potato variety was reinforced with Barium Titanate Oxide (BTO) to fabricate a biopolymeric film with a high dielectric constant. This composite film was employed as the triboelectric layer in a freestanding sliding Triboelectric Nanogenerator (TENG), which achieved a maximum output voltage of 25 V and a short-circuit current of 2.5 μA. This TENG was used to charge a 3.4 μF capacitor, demonstrating the potential of Andean potato starch-based films for energy harvesting applications, particularly in self-powered sensors and low-power electronic devices.