Journal
FOOD HYDROCOLLOIDS
Volume 56, Issue -, Pages 29-40Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodhyd.2015.11.021
Keywords
Biofabrication; Ultrasound; Colloidal chitosan; Rheology; AFM
Categories
Funding
- European Union (FEDER funds)
- National funds from the Portuguese National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN) allocated through the Operational Competitiveness Programme (COMPETE)
- North Portugal Regional Operational Programme [FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-37285, FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-041438, NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000069]
- CIQ through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [Pest-C/EQB/LA0006/2013, Pest-C/QUI/UI0081/2013, EXPL/QEQ-QFI/0368/2013]
- FCT [SFRH/BPD/75259/2010]
- FAPERJ [18935/12-5]
- CNPq
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [SFRH/BPD/75259/2010, EXPL/QEQ-QFI/0368/2013] Funding Source: FCT
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Compared to the oil-derived plastics typically used in food packaging, biofilms of pure chitosan present serious moisture issues. The physical degradation of the polysaccharide with ultrasound effectively reduces the water vapor permeability in these films but, unfortunately, they also turn more brittle. Blending chitosans of different morphology and molecular mass (M) is an unexplored strategy that could bring balance without the need of incorporating toxic or non-biodegradable plasticizers. To this end, we prepared and characterized the mixtures of a high-M chitosan with the products of its own ultrasonic fragmentation. Biopolymer degradation was followed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and the mechanical and structural characteristics of the mixtures were evaluated from different rheological methods and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results indicate that, through the control of the sonication time and mixture ratio, it is possible to adjust the viscoelasticity and morphological aspect of the mixtures at intermediate levels relative to their individual components. In a more general sense, it is emphasized the importance of design and materials processing for the development of a novel generation of additive-free sustainable but functional bioplastics. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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