Effect of polyethylene wax/soy protein-based dispersion barrier coating on the physical, mechanical, and barrier characteristics of paperboards

Abstract

Application of barrier dispersion coatings on the paperboards, which must have proper moisture and grease resistance for food applications, has always been an interesting subject for the packaging industry. In this study, paperboards were coated with a novel dispersion barrier coating prepared through mixing soy protein isolate (SPI) and polyethylene wax (PE-wax). Different characterization methods were used to study the effects of coating and its composition on the physical, mechanical, and barrier characteristics of paperboards. The results indicated that the incorporation of PE-wax into the coating formulation caused significant reduction of the viscosity of coating slurries. It had no effect on the coating weight of the samples but increased the thickness of the coated paperboards as compared with those coated with SPI only. The increase of the wax content led to a reduction of 5 to 16% in the tensile strength values in comparison with the uncoated paperboards. Barrier characteristics, i.e. water vapor permeability (WVP), surface wettability, and water resistance improved by adding PE-wax. In addition, it was found that there was a critical level for the addition of PE-wax, 50% of SPI, as no oil migration was detected when the paperboards coated with SPI coatings contained less than 50% PE-wax.

Hybrid paper sheets with improved barrier properties

“…Besides being nonwetting with high CA and low CAH values, hybrid paper sheets should also possess barrier properties against water and air for being considered as potential candidates for packaging materials [33][34][35][36][37]. In literature, the resistancy of these materials towards various environmental factors like gases, temperature, moisture, or grease is frequently reported [33][34][35][36][37]. But, the resistancy against water and air are the two most crucial factors in determining the barrier performance of a paper based material [34][35][36].…”

“…In literature, the resistancy of these materials towards various environmental factors like gases, temperature, moisture, or grease is frequently reported [33][34][35][36][37]. But, the resistancy against water and air are the two most crucial factors in determining the barrier performance of a paper based material [34][35][36]. Usually, a polymeric composite coating is applied onto the paper or paperboard sustrate to achieve the desired barrier properties [33,34,37].…”