Zein–Laponite nanocomposites with improved mechanical, thermal and barrier properties

Rouf, Tahrima B.; Schmidt, Gudrun; Kokini, Jozef L.

doi:10.1007/s10853-018-2061-6

Cited by 38 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Corn zein is a unique material for nanofibers due to its high tensile strength, flexibility, and toughness in films, [32][33][34][35][36], nanofibers [24], and composites [37]. Fabrication of the fibers is also made easy by zein's hydrophobicity and insolubility in water.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air-Jet Spun Corn Zein Nanofibers and Thin Films with Topical Drug for Medical Applications

Gough

Bessette

Xue

et al. 2020

IJMS

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Diabetic patients are especially susceptible to chronic wounds of the skin, which can lead to serious complications. Sodium citrate is one potential therapeutic molecule for the topical treatment of diabetic ulcers, but its viability requires the assistance of a biomaterial matrix. In this study, nanofibers and thin films fabricated from natural corn zein protein are explored as a drug delivery vehicle for the topical drug delivery of sodium citrate. Corn zein is cheap and abundant in nature, and easily extracted with high purity, while nanofibers are frequently cited as ideal drug carriers due to their high surface area and high porosity. To further reduce costs, the 1-D nanofibers in this study were fabricated through an air jet-spinning method rather than the conventional electrospinning method. Thin films were also created as a comparative 2-D material. Corn zein composite nanofibers and thin films with different concentration of sodium citrate (1–30%) were analyzed through FTIR, DSC, TGA, and SEM. Results reveal that nanofibers are a much more effective vehicle than films, with the ability to interact with sodium citrate. Thermal analysis results show a stable material with low degradation, while FTIR reveals strong control over the protein secondary structures and hold of citrate. These tunable properties and morphologies allow the fibers to provide a sustained release of citrate and then revert to their structure prior to citrate loading. A statistical analysis via t-test confirmed a significant difference between fiber and film drug release. A biocompatibility study also confirms that cells are much more tolerant of the porous nanofiber structure than the nonporous protein films, and lower percentages of sodium citrate (1–5%) were outperformed to higher percentages (15–30%). This study demonstrated that protein-based nanofiber materials have high potential as vehicles for the delivery of topical diabetic drugs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air-Jet Spun Corn Zein Nanofibers and Thin Films with Topical Drug for Medical Applications

Gough

Bessette

Xue

et al. 2020

IJMS

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“…Once purified, the protein molecular weight ranges between 19 and 22 kDa. The functional groups such as OH, NH 2 , COOH, and SH can be modified to add desirable properties for materials applications in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, packaging, and green materials chemistry . Corn zein has been used in the past for making adhesives9b and coatings with many older US patents on this topic 7a.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strong Adhesives from Corn Protein and Tannic Acid

Schmidt

Woods

Fung

et al. 2019

Advanced Sustainable Systems

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Modern society is in great need of environmentally sustainable and low‐cost alternatives to some petroleum derived adhesives. To allow recycling and avoid pollution, adhesives for single use products including packaging are of particular interest. Potential candidates for such applications are the adhesive formulations of corn zein protein and tannic acid presented here. High strength adhesive bonding is found when the formulations are optimized with regard to composition, pH, and curing temperature. Bonding is tested on aluminum substrates using lap shear configurations. Adhesion strengths exceed the minimal bonding of zein‐only controls. Maximum adhesion for zein and tannic acid is as strong as commercial Super Glue when measured under similar conditions. The system forms nanometer and micrometer sized pores throughout the bulk adhesive. A low amount of tannic acid and neutral pH of the strongest adhesive make the corn zein–tannic acid system potentially appealing for cost efficient adhesives used in packaging, cosmetics, and other single use applications where biomedical grade purity is not required.

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“…All these bands were previously observed by Rouf et al . (2018) in zein FTIR spectra. Finally, the amide I band had some main bands overlapping each other.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%