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Abstract
The interest in the development of novel biodegradable composites has increased over last years, and multilayer composites allow the design of materials with functionality and improved properties. In this work, bilayer structures based on a coated zein layer containing quercetin and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) over an extruded poly(lactic acid) (PLA) layer were developed and characterized. Bilayer composites were successfully obtained and presented a total thickness of approx. 90 µm. The coated zein layer and quercetin gave a yellowish tone to the composites. The incorporation of the zein layer containing CNC decreased the volatile release rate during thermal degradation. Regarding to mechanical properties, bilayer composites presented lower brittleness and greater ductility evidenced by a lower Young’s modulus and higher elongation values. Water permeability values of bilayer composites greatly increased with humidity and the zein coated layer containing quercetin increased this effect. Experimental data of quercetin release kinetics from bilayer structures indicated a higher release for an alcoholic food system, and the incorporation of cellulose nanocrystals did not influence the quercetin diffusion process.
Highlights
Current food packaging is mainly composed by petroleum-based polymeric materials which present certain disadvantages since, in addition to being synthesized from a non-renewable source, they are not biodegradable polymers, which demonstrates an important source of waste generation and accumulation [1]
In this work, bilayer biodegradable structures based on a thin coated zein layer containing quercetin, as a natural antioxidant compound, and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) over an extruded poly(lactic acid) (PLA) substrate were developed with the aim to create an antioxidant biodegradable system with improved physical–mechanical properties for food packaging applications
Quercetin release kinetics have been characterized by means of specific experimental migration assays using 3% (v/v) acetic acid and 10% (v/v) ethanol as food simulants in order to describe the mass transfer of quercetin from bilayer PLA/ZN composites
Summary
Current food packaging is mainly composed by petroleum-based polymeric materials which present certain disadvantages since, in addition to being synthesized from a non-renewable source, they are not biodegradable polymers, which demonstrates an important source of waste generation and accumulation [1]. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) have been considered one of the most attractive and promising nanoreinforcements for renewable polymers thanks to their unique properties such as their highly crystalline structure, low density, renewable nature, biodegradability, transparency, and high specific area [11,12,13]. Conventional multilayer structures are very common, the development of biodegradable multilayer structures by different techniques, such as thermo-compression assembling and electrospinning coating technology, is quite a recent topic These techniques involve limitations such as high heat exposure that can affect the active layer during compression assembling and small scale production by electrospinning. In this work, bilayer biodegradable structures based on a thin coated zein layer containing quercetin, as a natural antioxidant compound, and CNC over an extruded PLA substrate were developed with the aim to create an antioxidant biodegradable system with improved physical–mechanical properties for food packaging applications. The kinetic release of quercetin from active composites was determined
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