Journal
ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING
Volume 6, Issue 4, Pages 5462-5469Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b00330
Keywords
Protein fibrils; Whey; Nanocomposite; Protein structure; Mechanical properties
Categories
Funding
- China Scholarship Council
- Formas [213-2014-1389]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This article describes nanocomposite films with separately grown protein nanofibrils (PNFs) in a nonfibrillar protein matrix from the same protein starting material (whey). Tensile tests on the glycerol-plasticized films indicate an increased elastic modulus and a decreased extensibility with increasing content of PNFs, although the films are still ductile at the maximum PNF content (15 wt %). Infrared spectroscopy confirms that the strongly hydrogen-bonded beta-sheets in the PNFs are retained in the composites. The films appear with a PNF-induced undulated upper surface. It is shown that micrometer-scale spatial variations in the glycerol distribution are not the cause of these undulations. Instead, the undulations seem to be a feature of the PNF material itself. It was also shown that, apart from plasticizing the protein film, the presence of glycerol seemed to favor to some extent exfoliation of stacked beta-sheets in the proteins, as revealed by X-ray diffraction.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available