Oxygen barrier materials from renewable sources: Material properties of softwood hemicellulose‐based films

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The aim of this study was to investigate the film-forming ability of the hemicellulose O-acetyl-galactoglucomannan (AcGGM) and to evaluate its potential as a barrier material. The polymer film was evaluated by measurement of its oxygen permeability (Ox-Tran® Mocon), thermal properties (differential scanning calorimetry), and dynamic mechanical properties under a humidity scan (humidity-scan DMA). The AcGGM was isolated from industrial process water obtained from mechanical wood pulping. The self-supporting films were formed by solution-casting from water. As expected, a plasticizer was needed to avoid brittleness, and glycerol, sorbitol, and xylitol were compared. However, these additives resulted in higher sensitivity to moisture, which might be less beneficial for some applications. Interesting oxygen barrier and mechanical strength properties were achieved in a film obtained from a physical blend of AcGGM and either alginate or carboxymethylcellulose, both having a substantially higher molecular weight than AcGGM. No phase separation was observed, since all the components used were rich in hydroxyl functionalities. When a plasticizer was also added to the binary mixture, a compromise between (1) low O 2 permeability, (2) high mechanical toughness, and (3) flexibility of an AcGGM-based film was obtained.

Scale-Up Preparation and Characterization of Collagen/Sodium Alginate Blend Films

“…Among them, the OP for CS1 was found to be lowest, but further increase in SA concentration led to an increase in OP of CS films. Generally SA possess a film-forming ability, which leads to modest or very good oxygen barrier properties depending on the structure [11]. However, the result was not as good as expected in this study; SA added in the collagen could not decrease the OP values for the blend films.…”

“…Edible films need to possess the appropriate mechanical properties and barrier properties from initial product packing to final consumer usage [11,12]. Meanwhile, the materials obtained from renewable natural sources that were used to prepare edible films mainly include proteins, lipids, polysaccharides, and their possible combinations [13,14].…”

Biopolymer Nanocomposite Films Reinforced with Nanocellulose Whiskers

“…[13][14][15] Recently, acetylated galactoglucomannan (AcGGM) hemicellulose was found to be an alternative material for making new renewable barrier materials. 16 The oxygen barrier permeability of the AcGGM films was found to be similar to, or lower than, the values reported for oxygen barrier films made from glucuronoxylan 17 and other polysaccharides, such as starch, 18 chitosan 19 and mixtures of various polysaccharides. 20 Glucuronoxylan, isolated from aspen wood, when plasticized with xylitol or sorbitol has been used to produce films that exhibit improved strength and oxygen barrier properties with respect to control glucuronoxylan films.…”

Long-Term Physical Stability of Plasticized Hemicellulose Films

“…Film formation from agro-based xylans, such as those from cotton stalks, barley husks, oat spelt, corn hulls, and wheat bran, has been studied lately (Zhang and Whistler 2004;Höije et al 2005;Mikkonen et al 2009;Zhang et al 2011;Bahcegul et al 2012). GGM film formation has been studied with plasticizers, with reinforcement using nano-sized cellulose, and with cross-linking agents (Hartman et al 2006, Mikkonen et al 2010. However, stability studies of hemicellulose films have only been briefly addressed in our previous study on OsAX films ), which opened questions on, e.g., the function of plasticizer blends relative to the behavior of barrier properties and the crystallinity of films during storage.…”