Abstract
Electrospinning is an effective and versatile method to prepare continuous polymer nanofibers and nonwovens that exhibit excellent properties such as high molecular orientation, high porosity and large specific surface area. Benefitting from these outstanding and intriguing features, electrospun nanofibers have been employed as a promising candidate for the fabrication of food packaging materials. Actually, the electrospun nanofibers used in food packaging must possess biocompatibility and low toxicity. In addition, in order to maintain the quality of food and extend its shelf life, food packaging materials also need to have certain functionality. Herein, in this timely review, functional materials produced from electrospinning toward food packaging are highlighted. At first, various strategies for the preparation of polymer electrospun fiber are introduced, then the characteristics of different packaging films and their successful applications in food packaging are summarized, including degradable materials, superhydrophobic materials, edible materials, antibacterial materials and high barrier materials. Finally, the future perspective and key challenges of polymer electrospun nanofibers for food packaging are also discussed. Hopefully, this review would provide a fundamental insight into the development of electrospun functional materials with high performance for food packaging.
Highlights
Electrospinning is a versatile technique for continuously producing nanofibers with a fiber diameter range from sub-nanometers to micrometers
In details, during the electrospinning process, the polymer solution is extruded from the capillary tube by the electric field force, and a Taylor cone can be formed at the tip of the capillary
Due to the influence of the applied electric field, numerous parallel jets of molten polymer are formed at the plate edge, and polymer films are obtained on the collector
Summary
Electrospinning is a versatile technique for continuously producing nanofibers with a fiber diameter range from sub-nanometers to micrometers. Takanori et al [72] investigated the parameters such as electric field and polymer solution concentration in the electrospinning process to prepare zein nanofiber membranes. Neo et al [73] prepared the electrospun zein membranes with the 80% ethanol as solvent, and further studied the fiber morphology affected by three processing parameters including solution concentration, electric field strength and solution parameters. This group [81] reported a needleless electrospinning method including a rotating disk and cylinder to prepare PVA nanofibers, and discussed the effect of nozzle shape on spinning process and fiber morphology On one side, this needleless electrospinning method could improve the productivity, which overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional multi-needle electrospinning method such as large operating space and careful design. Electrospinning plastic materials, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and nylon, are commonly used in the field of packaging as well
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