Barrier Properties of PVA/TiO 2 /MMT Mixed-Matrix Membranes for Food Packaging
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Barrier Properties of PVA/TiO2/MMT Mixed‑Matrix Membranes for Food Packaging Maryam Zamanian1 · Hassan Sadrnia1 · Mehdi Khojastehpour1 · Fereshte Hosseini2 · Boguslaw Kruczek3 · Jules Thibault3 Accepted: 4 November 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract One of the important challenges in food industries is to achieve sufficient gas barrier properties for packaging films. Films made of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) are commonly used for food packaging and are sometimes used with embedded nanoparticles. In this investigation, PVA nanocomposite films were prepared using solution-casting method with different concentrations of montmorillonite (MMT) and titanium oxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. A response surface methodology (RSM), based on three-level factorial design, was implemented to model and optimize the effect of the concentrations of the nanofillers on the barrier properties of thin nanocomposite films. The viscosity of the polymer-forming solution increased when nanoparticles were incorporated in the polymer matrix. SEM micrographs showed a good distribution of nanofillers at low concentration whereas some aggregation was observed at higher nanofiller loadings. Transparency of PVA-based thin films decreased with an increase of TiO2/MMT loading. A significant increase in the Young ̓s modulus occurred with an increase in the loading of nanoparticles whereas the tensile strength and elongation at the breakpoint both decreased. Results for PVA/MMT/TiO2 nanocomposite films showed a decrease in the oxygen transmission rate and water vapor permeability compared to a neat PVA membrane. The particle loading leading to optimum barrier properties for nanocomposite films was a combined loading of 1 wt% TiO2 and 4 wt% MMT. Graphic Abstract
Keywords Barrier property · Nanocomposites · Packaging · Poly (vinyl alcohol) · Montmorillonite · Titanium oxide
Introduction * Hassan Sadrnia [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Thin polymeric films are used routinely in the food packaging industry. The primary purpose of these films is to offer a protective barrier against environmental elements. These films have greatly evolved over the years and additional
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functionalities have been designed by incorporating nanoparticles in the polymeric matrix to form nanocomposite films as illustrated in Fig. 1 [1]. Nevertheless, the main function of these thin polymer nanocomposite films in food packaging still remains the barrier properties to retain the freshness of food products [2–5]. Currently the polymers used to manufacture barrier membranes come from the petrochemical industry. Apart from using non-renewable resources, the main drawback of petrochemical-based plastics is their persistence in nature after usage because of the non-biodegradability of many of them. To overcome this limitation, the food industry have embarked in a movement to resort to ecofriendly food packaging materials including the
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