Abstract
Hemicellulose with good biodegradability and low oxygen permeability shows great potential in food packaging. However, its strong hydrophilicity leads to its poor moisture resistance, which hinders its wider application. In this paper, a near-hydrophobic hemicellulose was obtained by using single-step synthesis from poplar powder via etherification modification with epoxy chloropropane. This proposed approach has the advantage of avoiding the destruction of hemicellulose structure by secondary alkali-hydrolysis, which was what usually occurred in traditional etherification procedures. The feasibility of using epoxy chloropropane as an alkylation reagent to etherify hemicellulose was confirmed, and the reaction mechanism was elucidated. Contact angle test, thermogravimetric analysis, oxygen transmittance test, and infrared spectrum analysis showed that the barrier property and thermal stability of etherified hemicellulose films have been significantly improved. At an epoxy chloropropane/wood powder ratio (volume/weight) of 2/3 (mL/g), the epoxy hemicellulose films contained the most epoxy groups and displayed the best performance, i.e., tensile strength of 14.6 MPa, surface contact angle of 71.7° and oxygen transmission coefficient of 1.9 (cm3·µm)/(m2·d·kPa), showing great promise as barrier film in food-packaging.
Highlights
In the face of the exhaustion of petrochemical resources and the pressure brought to the environment by the extensive use of petroleum-based packaging materials, development of renewable packaging materials of biomass origin has been a research focus
Secondary alkali-hydrolysis will result in the destruction of hemicellulose structure, a decreased degree of polymerization, and poor mechanical properties [37]. In view of this drawback, this paper reports on the modification of hemicellulose by etherification in the process of hemicellulose extraction from poplar powder residue by one-step method, where the modified product was obtained by direct alcohol precipitation, avoiding the damage to poplar hemicellulose by secondary alkali-hydrolysis
The etherification reaction of hemicellulose, where epoxy chloropropane was used as alkylation reagent, proceeded under basic conditions and underwent a process of ring opening, condensation reaction and ring closing
Summary
In the face of the exhaustion of petrochemical resources and the pressure brought to the environment by the extensive use of petroleum-based packaging materials, development of renewable packaging materials of biomass origin has been a research focus. Utilization of forest biomass in this regard is expected to effectively avoid the low-efficiency use of abundant biomass resources, which reduces the dependence on petrochemical resources, and ensures energy security [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Hemicellulose is a kind of natural macromolecular material with plentiful sources. Hemicellulose film as packaging material is essentially still in the research stage, preliminarily applications have been found, e.g., as cover film to keep pepper fresh [14]
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