Abstract

Paper is the material of choice for a large range of applications because it has many favorable environmental and economic characteristics. Especially in the packaging sector of dry goods and food products, paper has found unique applications. For that purpose, it has to fulfill certain requirements: Primarily it should protect the packaged goods. In order to ensure the compliance of a paper packaging, its interactions with the packaged goods should be investigated. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to understand how the paper interacts with chemicals of different nature and what factors influence these interactions—be that the nature of the paper or the characteristics of the substances. In this study, we investigated the surface interactions of cellulose thin films with n-decane and deuterated methanol using two different analytical methods: headspace solid-phase microextraction with gas chromatography and flame ionization detection (HS-SPME-GC/FID) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). Cellulose thin films were characterized with contact angle and FT-IR measurements and successfully applied as model systems for real paper samples. Regarding the interactions of the cellulose films with the model compounds, the two inherently different methods, HS-SPME-GC/FID and TPD, provide very comparable results. While the nonpolar n-decane was readily released from the cellulose films, the polar model compound deuterated methanol showed a strong interaction with the polar cellulose surface.

Highlights

  • The need for environmentally friendly packaging materials is greater than ever before, and the demand to produce packaging solutions that fulfill both the environmental and economic aspects is still of major importance

  • temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) works under nonequilibrium conditions and HS-SPME-GC/FID works under equilibrium conditions, both methods were successfully applied and provided highly comparable results

  • The polar molecule methanol-d4 is more strongly adsorbed, a fact that can be explained by its higher affinity to the polar cellulose surface

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Summary

Introduction

The need for environmentally friendly packaging materials is greater than ever before, and the demand to produce packaging solutions that fulfill both the environmental and economic aspects is still of major importance. Paper is a material that has many favorable characteristics, and it is commonly used in many different fields of applications. For packaging applications, it fulfills many of the desired environmental aspects. It is a sustainable, biodegradable material with excellent mechanical properties and excellent printability. Biodegradable material with excellent mechanical properties and excellent printability For the packaging of dry goods and food products, paper is already the prime choice.

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