There is a trend in packaging industry toward more sustainable packaging materials not interfering with the end-of-life or recovery schemes and helping to avoid plastic waste accumulation. Simultaneously, there is interest in bio-based materials, which could open up possibilities for various biopolymers. Single-layer biopolymer films rarely have a competitive edge against synthetic films, thus combining several individual layers or films into multilayer packaging materials becomes necessary. In this way, good properties of several materials can be combined and, for example, the overall barrier properties may be improved.

Team

With the aim of achieving a more sustainable world, a number of efforts are currently oriented to replace synthetic polymer with the use of natural analogues, in order to obtain different materials. The objective of this project is to study in detail the characteristics of complexes formed by two different natural polyelectrolytes, such as chitosan and xylan. The research plan includes the study of the effect of the order of polyelectrolyte addition, relation of charge between them as well as the impact of the ionic strength and pH of the media in the external charge of the resulting complex. By reaching a better understanding of the condition of formation of these complexes, it is expected to widen the possibility of use of recycled, unbleached fibres in applications such as the manufacture of high quality packaging papers, and on the other hand, to manufacture films with excellent mechanical properties, of potential use in food packaging.

Team

Maria Cristina Inalbon, Maria Veronica Galván, Maria Soledad Peresin, Miguel A. Zanuttini, Miguel A. Citroni