Improving the water resistance of nanocellulose-based films with polyhydroxyalkanoates processed by the electrospinning coating technique

Adriane Cherpinski, Sergio Torres-Giner, Jari Vartiainen, Maria Soledad Peresin, Panu Lahtinen, Jose M. Lagaron*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    97 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) comprise a family of biodegradable aliphatic polyesters with enhanced sustainable profile and high water vapor barrier. As environmentally friendly materials, nanostructured cellulose-based films, also called nanopapers, such as films made of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) and lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNFs), are also of growing interest due to their high mechanical strength and outstanding oxygen barrier properties at dry conditions. Unfortunately, nanopapers are highly hydrophilic, lacking of sufficient moisture resistance for uses in, for instance, food packaging. The present study reports, for the first time, on the effect of electrospun poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) double side coatings on the morphology, water contact angle, mechanical properties, and barrier performance of CNF and LCNF films. The resultant multilayer structures showed significantly improved water contact resistance, more balanced mechanical properties, and higher barrier performance against water vapor in comparison to the neat nanopapers. Although the PHA-coated nanopapers presented slightly lower aroma barrier due to the intrinsic affinity of PHA for limonene uptake, these sustainable multilayer films further improved the oxygen performance of the nanopapers, showing significant potential as barrier materials even at high humidity conditions. As a result, the here-developed novel films, based on nanopapers double side coated with electrospun PHB and PHBV layers, appear as a very promising fully bio-based material concept for food packaging applications due to their outstanding water vapor and oxygen barrier performance.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1291-1307
    Number of pages17
    JournalCellulose
    Volume25
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2018
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) project AGL2015-63855-C2-1-R for financial support. Adriane Cherpinski also acknowledges the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action FP1405 for funding through a Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) and the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) of the Brasilian Government for her predoctoral scholarship (205955/2014-2).

    Keywords

    • Barrier packaging
    • Electrospinning
    • Nanocellulose
    • Nanopaper
    • PHB
    • PHBV

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