Development of polystyrene-based films with temperature buffering capacity for smart food packaging

Development of an encapsulated phase change material via emulsion and coaxial electrospinning

“…Furthermore, some of the encapsulated PCM could be released during the swelling, thus decreasing the heat storage capacity of these samples. Therefore, from the results obtained in the first part of this work, it was clearly observed that hydrophilic matrices greatly improved the encapsulation efficiency of the PCM (RT5) in comparison with previous works carried out with more hydrophobic materials, although this solution provided a handling problem under environmental conditions.…”

“…In fact, while pure PCM crystallized at 5.4 °C, two crystallization temperatures were detected for the PVOH/PCM hybrid structures which can be ascribed to the multiple crystallization processes of the N‐alkanes ascribed to the rotator phase transitions which are observed in these paraffins when their particle size is reduced . However, the supercooling degree of PVOH/PCM hybrid structures did not differ from that obtained for the neat PCM whereas greater supercooling degree was observed for more hydrophobic matrices …”

“…12,29,30 However, the supercooling degree of PVOH/PCM hybrid structures did not differ from that obtained for the neat PCM whereas greater supercooling degree was observed for more hydrophobic matrices. 11,13,18,31 Concerning the electrospun hybrid structures prepared with surfactants, the onset temperature was the same but the melting temperature range was larger for the encapsulated PCM containing surfactants compared to the neat PCM and emulsionelectrospun structures without surfactants. In these cases, the PCM also showed a multiple crystallization profile and these structures showed a greater supercooling degree (calculated as the difference between the last melting and the first crystallization peaks detected) which can be explained by a reduction of the RT5 particle size, since the number of nuclei needed to initiate the crystallization process is thought to decrease with reducing the diameter of the PCM drops inside the electrospun structures.…”

Multilayer packaging: Advances in preparation techniques and emerging food applications

“…The developed nanofiber polymer mats contain paraffin as PCM and possess an efficient temperature buffering tendency (Chalco‐Sandoval, Fabra, López‐Rubio, & Lagaron, 2017). Researchers also reported a study on the use of PCM on polystyrene (PS) electrospun coatings and as insulation in refrigeration systems and confirmed positive results in terms of increasing the quality and safety of foodstuffs (Chalco‐Sandoval, Fabra, López‐Rubio, & Lagaron, 2015). However, till date, most electrospinning and electrospraying systems are employed at the lab scale and this remains as the major limitation of this approach.…”

“…Results inferred that the electrospinning process is relatively less efficient for a negatively charged solution with positive collector and more regular nanofibers resulted in positively charged solutions with the negatively charged collector. In another study, an electrospinning pilot plant equipped with humidity and temperature control unit was used with coaxial multinozzle emitter and a horizontal metallic grid as a collector (Chalco‐Sandoval, Fabra, López‐Rubio, & Lagaron, 2014; Chalco‐Sandoval et al., 2015, 2017).…”