As fossil fuel feedstock prices increase, the chemical industry is turning more to bio-based polymers which have advantages in environmental sustainability, biodegradability, and economics. Distillers' grains (DG), a major byproduct from the dry grind ethanol industry, represents a low cost feedstock that may utilized to extract a natural polymeric blend of arabinoxylans and proteins through alkaline extraction.  Further purification may be done to enrich the arabinoxylan content drastically changing the properties of the material.  To further understand this model materials of xylan and protein were formulated and studied to investigate this interaction.  Additional films of both the natural and model systems were cast and their properties measured to suggest potential applications of this natural material.  Additionally, to further take advantage of the dual nature of the hemicellulose protein polymer mix, studies were conducted to oxidize the xylan into dialdehyde xylan by sodium periodate to allow for cross-linking with amine groups in the protein. The study oxidized birchwood xylan and produced polymer blends with either polyvinylamine or soy protein isolates. The resulting polymers were characterized and cast into film and paper coating. The film properties were evaluated by FTIR, water vapor transfer rate (WVTR), DSC, tensile strength, and scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the coated paper was evaluated for water absorbency and mechanical properties. The results showed that the oxidized xylan and oxidized xylan/protein material has novel properties that should be useful for coatings.

Film and coating with enhanced properties by cross-linking oxidized xylan with soy protein

248th National Meeting (2014)

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