Glucomannan for Food Packaging Biofilms: Faceting of the Polymer Film

EasyChair Preprint 6135, version 2

Abstract

Glucomannan, natural hemicellulose that comes from the roots of a plant called Konjac, is a promising material for food packaging and printed electronics films. Unlike petroleum-based films, glucomannan films are biodegradable, safe, and eco-friendly. Glucomannan films should be transparent, clear, create water vapor and oxygen barriers, and have good mechanical properties. In this work, the films were formulated from three constituents: glucomannan, surfactant, and plasticizer. Mixing of the ingredients was done at a constant temperature of 35 ^oC and 6000 rpm. Upon drying in an Environmental Chamber (50 ^oC and 11.4% RH and 18-36 hours); after 3 hours, the films, showed shape transformation and surfactant freezing and depositing on the glucomannan-water interface. This deformation structure had shapes that looked like polygons and long fibers. This is the faceting of the droplets of glucomannan gel solution during the slow cooling process or so-called interfacial freezing phenomena. Faceting of the glucomannan gel droplets reduced the film’s clarity, strength, and vapor permeability, these deformed films are not suitable for packaging nor for printed electronics. We found that for a successful film formation, controlling the reaction temperature of the components at 40 ^oC and the drying conditions in an Environmental chamber (57 ^oC and 35% RH) is necessary.

Keyphrases: Packaging, Surfynol 104H, biofilms, faceting, glucomannan, stretch wrapping films

@booklet{EasyChair:6135,
  author    = {Kholoud Al-Ajlouni and Paul D. Fleming and Alexandra Pekarovicova},
  title     = {Glucomannan for Food Packaging Biofilms: Faceting of the Polymer Film},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 6135},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2022}}