Development and Characterisation of Arabinoxylan-Based Composite Films

Abstract

In the last decades, the overuse of synthetic polymers in the packaging industry has become a serious global environmental problem due to their nonbiodegradability. To overcome this issue, attention has been driven to study alternative materials, namely the use of biodegradable biopolymers extracted from agro-industrial residues, as materials for food packages. In this work, the polysaccharide arabinoxylan, previously extracted from corn fibre by alkaline hydrolysis, was used to produce composite and multilayer films. The composite films were produced by casting an oil-in-water emulsion with different quantities of oleic acid, while the multilayer films (beeswax-arabinoxylan-beeswax) were manufactured by submerging the arabinoxylan films in a beeswax solution. Both film types, along with a film composed only of arabinoxylan, were characterised in terms of their antioxidant activity, optical and mechanical properties, surface hydrophobicity, and barrier properties against water vapour (WVP), gases, and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) radiation. All the films developed were soluble in water. The multilayer films were more advantageous than the emulsion-based ones due to their enhanced barrier properties against water vapour (WVP = 0.58 × 10−11 mol/m∙s∙Pa), oxygen (with a permeability of 3.28 × 10−12 mol.m−1.s−1.Pa−1) and UV-vis radiation and higher values of water contact angle (92.43°), tensile stress (4.11 MPa), and Young’s modulus (15.96 MPa). The films developed, especially the multilayer ones, showed a good potential to produce flexible packages for low-water-content food products (e.g., several types of nuts).

Improving Biodegradable Films from Corn Bran Arabinoxylan for Hydrophobic Material and Green Food Packaging

“…The modification of AX films may cause a barrier between water and the hydrophilic nature of the AX chains, resulting in a reduction in the availability of the hydroxyl group (OH) and, in turn, a decrease in water interactions in the AX chains through hydrogen bonds. This outcome can lead to a decrease in the film moisture content, as has been shown in previous research [28,47].…”

“…The surface of DDGS films was affected by their suspension in the lipase-vinyl acetate mixture; thus, the modified DDGS films were hydrophobic with a lower affinity for water. Since a contact angle with >90° assumes a low wettability of a film's surface [28], all AX films in this study were clearly hydrophobic materials with low wetting tendencies. It is most likely that both modified DCB and WCB films had smooth surfaces, which may be an indicator for their hydrophilic films (modified DCB and modified WCB films morphology pictures not shown).…”

Characterisation of Films Based on Exopolysaccharides from Alteromonas Strains Isolated from French Polynesia Marine Environments

“…For example, synthetic polymers used as packaging materials, such as LDPE and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), both had a WVP of 0.01 × 10 −11 mol m −1 s −1 Pa −1 for a driving force of 90–0% RH [ 34 ], and cellophane that presented a WVP of 0.47 × 10 −11 mol m −1 s −1 Pa −1 with 72–0% RH [ 27 ]. Nonetheless, different strategies could be employed to increase the films barrier properties to water vapor, such as promoting crosslinking reactions between the polymer’s chains, or the addition of lipids (e.g., olive oil, rice wax, or beeswax) to the filmogenic solutions or in multilayer films [ 35 ].…”

Enhanced molecular structure, thermal stability, and linear/nonlinear optical characteristics of chitosan/titanium dioxide nanocomposite films

“…Polymers and nanocomposites have grown in importance due to their wide range of applications, including photonics, biotechnology, packaging, drug delivery, and optoelectronics (Kamari and Ghiaci 2016;Kumar et al 2018). Overuse of synthetic polymers and nanocomposites in the packaging sector has become a severe global environmental problem in recent decades due to their nonbiodegradability (Souza et al 2017;, Salvada et al 2022. The increasing concern about the environment has prompted the industry to try to replace non-biodegradable petrochemical-based plastics with biodegradable ones.…”