News

Abhilash Venkateshaiah, Renee L. Timmins, Elmar Sehl, Stanislaw Waclawek, Miroslav ?Cerník, Vinod V. T. Padil and Seema Agarwal

Macromol. Mater. Eng., 2022, 2200008, DOI: 10.1002/mame.202200008

Lately, environmentally benign packaging materials with biodegradability, flexibility, and high barrier properties are sought after as a substitute for conventional plastic packaging materials due to increasing plastic pollution and microplastics in the environment. Although natural polymers can be sustainable alternatives to petro-sourced, non-biodegradable plastics, they suffer from the poor barrier and mechanical properties. In this study, a mechanically stable, biodegradable film of tree gum kondagogu with remarkable barrier properties is fabricated. The introduction of spray-coated, waterborne, large-aspect ratio sodium-hectorite dispersion on tree-gum films ensured very high barrier properties even at high relative humidity conditions (oxygen transmission rate (OTR) ˜1.7 cm³ m^-2 day^-1 bar^-1 at 75% relative humidity). The coating not only decreases gas permeability through the films but also minimizes the sensitivity of performance to humidity levels. The clay-coated nanocomposite films outperformed various commercial polymers and are comparable to high-performance packaging films in terms of oxygen barrier properties. Further, the coating improved the mechanical properties of the films rendering them a prospective packaging material. These biodegradable, high-barrier and mechanically robust films are a promising advance in the field of sustainable packaging.