Guruchandran Srisowmeya, Rajendra Prasath Bhagyashri Bharathi, Sudhakar Swathi, Mani Ethayaraja
Polymer Engineering and Colloid Science Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India.
Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai 600036, India.
Langmuir. 2024 Sep 3;40(35):18418-18429. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c01095. Epub 2024 Aug 20.
Synthetic packaging materials are known to cause serious environmental and human health problems. Among the eco-friendly biopolymers from nonfood sources that are suitable for packaging applications, pectin is a promising candidate. However, native pectin films (NPF) exhibit poor mechanical strength, high hydrophilicity, and poor gas diffusion barrier properties. These shortcomings offset the advantages of pectin as a potential packaging material. To address these limitations, in this study, hematite nano ellipsoids (HNEs) were incorporated as fillers to reinforce native pectin films. This reinforcement resulted in substantial improvements in the mechanical properties, hydrophobicity, thermal stability, barrier properties, and optical attributes of pectin films. Compared to NPF, the pectin-hematite composite film exhibited a 35% increase in tensile strength, a 30° increase in contact angle, a 6-fold increase in the oxygen diffusion barrier properties, and a 20% increase in the water vapor barrier properties. This study presents a sustainable, biocompatible, and biodegradable packaging solution by capitalizing on eco-friendly biopolymer and nanoparticle engineering.
已知合成包装材料会引发严重的环境和人类健康问题。在适用于包装应用的非食品来源的环保型生物聚合物中，果胶是一个很有前景的选择。然而，天然果胶膜（NPF）表现出较差的机械强度、高亲水性和不良的气体扩散阻隔性能。这些缺点抵消了果胶作为潜在包装材料的优势。为了解决这些局限性，在本研究中，掺入赤铁矿纳米椭球体（HNE）作为填料来增强天然果胶膜。这种增强作用使果胶膜的机械性能、疏水性、热稳定性、阻隔性能和光学属性得到了显著改善。与NPF相比，果胶-赤铁矿复合膜的拉伸强度提高了35%，接触角增加了30°，氧气扩散阻隔性能提高了6倍，水蒸气阻隔性能提高了20%。本研究通过利用环保型生物聚合物和纳米颗粒工程，提出了一种可持续、生物相容且可生物降解的包装解决方案。
