The development of packaging films based on biomass derived renewable materials is an important research area today. Growing packaging markets will need increasing amounts of raw materials in the future, and there is a need for green alternatives to replace oil-based products. One important property in packaging films is their long-term stability, since packages need to be usable and functional for longer period. Oat spelt arabinoxylan (OsAX) and spruce galactoglucomannan (GGM) are hemicelluloses that can be extracted in large quantities from side-streams of the agriculture and forest industries. They both form self-standing films, making them interesting future packaging materials. This study focused on how storage effects on the physical stability of plasticized OsAX and GGM films. Films were plasticized with 40% (w/w of the polysaccharide) of glycerol, sorbitol, or their blends. Physical stability of the films was monitored by measuring mechanical properties and crystallinity from fresh films and after four months of storage. Ageing especially affected the glycerol-containing films, in which the tensile strength and Young's modulus increased and elongation at break decreased. Although the mechanical properties altered, storage did not affect crystallinity of the films. Oxygen gas permeability (OP) and water vapor barrier permeability (WVP) properties were monitored in OsAX films. Interestingly WVP decreased during storage, whereas, there were no drastic changes in OP during storage.

Long-term physical stability of plasticized hemicellulose films

247th National Meeting (2014)

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