Wheat gluten/montmorillonite biocomposites: Effect of pH on the mechanical properties and clay dispersion

eXPRESS Polymer Letters

E. Cortes-Trivino¹ 

关键词: nanocomposites;    extrusion;    wheat gluten;    montmorillonite;    pH;   

DOI  :  10.3144/expresspolymlett.2018.52

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: eXPRESS Polymer Letters

【 摘 要 】

The addition of inorganic fillers into a bioplastic could increase its mechanical properties, which will be influencedstrongly by the type of the clay dispersion. In this work, we have used montmorillonite nanoclays (MMT) to prepare biocompositesby means of an extrusion process. We present herein the effect of the pH and the addition of montmorillonitenanoclays (MMT) on the barrier and mechanical properties of wheat gluten based bioplastics. The pH of the samples wasmodified by adding aqueous solution of a strong acid or base (H2SO4 and NaOH). Tensile, dynamic mechanical thermalanalysis (DMTA), water absorption and X-ray tests were carried out to study the influence of the above-mentioned variableson the physicochemical properties and rheological behaviour of bioplastics and biocomposites obtained. Tensile resultsshowed that both Young’s modulus and tensile strength are higher at unmodified pH. However, the addition of MMT to analkaline biopolymer matrix produced remarkable improvements in the rheological and mechanical properties because of ahigh exfoliation of the nanoclay noticeable in X-ray results. To summarise, extrusion process and the use of nanoclays presentan excellent opportunity to develop wheat gluten bioplastics able to replace conventional products.

【 授权许可】

CC BY