The Effect of Carbon Black on the Properties of Plasticised Wheat Gluten Biopolymer

Abstract

Wheat gluten biopolymers generally become excessively rigid when processed without plasticisers, while the use of plasticisers, on the other hand, can deteriorate their mechanical properties. As such, this study investigated the effect of carbon black (CB) as a filler into glycerol-plasticised gluten to prepare gluten/CB biocomposites in order to eliminate the aforementioned drawback. Thus, biocomposites were manufactured using compression moulding followed by the determination of their mechanical, morphological, and chemical properties. The filler content of 4 wt% was found to be optimal for achieving increased tensile strength by 24%, and tensile modulus by 268% along with the toughness retention based on energy at break when compared with those of glycerol-plasticised gluten. When reaching the filler content up to 6 wt%, the tensile properties were found to be worsened, which can be ascribed to excessive agglomeration of carbon black at the high content levels within gluten matrices. Based on infrared spectroscopy, the results demonstrate an increased amount of β-sheets, suggesting the formation of more aggregated protein networks induced by increasing the filler contents. However, the addition of fillers did not improve fire and water resistance in such bionanocomposites owing to the high blend ratio of plasticiser to gluten.

Water vapor barrier properties of wheat gluten/silica hybrid coatings on paperboard for food packaging applications

“…To date, many different approaches have been used to address the water sensitivity of WG materials, including coating a thin layer of polyethylene terephthalate, thermal treatment-mediated polymer network modifications, the use of mixed WG and hydrophobic biodegradable polymers (e.g. polycaprolactone), mixing WG with polysaccharides to yield structural complexes, or incorporation of nanofillers such as montmorillonite (Sartori et al, 2018;Mascheroni, Guillard, Gastaldi, Gontard, & Chalier, 2011;Das et al, 2020;Türe, Gällstedt, Johansson, & Hedenqvist, 2013). In the present study, we propose an alternative approach to improve the water vapor barrier properties of paperboard, based on the development of WG-based hybrid coatings through sol-gel chemistry.…”

Novel Bioplastic from Single Cell Protein as a Potential Packaging Material

“…30 wt % glycerol was added (30/70 w/w glycerol/SCP) to the powder, which was subsequently ground thoroughly for 10 min using the mortar and pestle to ensure uniform mixing of the two components (Figure S1). The choice of 30 wt % glycerol was based on the fact that it is on a level that ensures efficient plasticization . The mixture was then allowed to dry at room temperature (20 °C) for 4–5 h. After that, the material was again ground with the mortar and pestle to obtain a fine powder of the final protein/glycerol mixture.…”

A Review on the Flammability Properties of Carbon-Based Polymeric Composites: State-of-the-Art and Future Trends

“…For instance, the high-density BC could be produced using high density biomass [ 60 ]. The BC has better thermal stability than the natural fibres [ 61 ]. The macro, meso, and micro-pores on its surface provide better physical bonding with matrix ( Figure 2 ) [ 59 ].…”