Nanocellulose-based multilayer barrier coatings for gas, oil, and grease resistance

Preeti Tyagi; Lucian A Lucia; Martin A Hubbe; Lokendra Pal

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.10.114

Nanocellulose-based multilayer barrier coatings for gas, oil, and grease resistance

Carbohydr Polym. 2019 Feb 15:206:281-288. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.10.114. Epub 2018 Oct 31.

Authors

Preeti Tyagi¹, Lucian A Lucia², Martin A Hubbe¹, Lokendra Pal³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 8005, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8005, USA.
² Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 8005, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8005, USA; Key Laboratory of Pulp & Paper Science and Technology, Qilu University of Technology, Jinan, 250353, PR China.
³ Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 8005, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8005, USA. Electronic address: lokendra_pal@ncsu.edu.

PMID: 30553323
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.10.114

Abstract

Cellulose derivatives such as cellulose nanofibers (CNF) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) have enormous potential to reduce or replace petroleum and fluorochemicals for food and other packaging applications. CNFs have been studied for their excellent oxygen and gas barrier properties; however, their performance rapidly decreases in the presence of moisture and higher humidity. CNCs are less sensitive to moisture due to their highly crystalline nature; however, coatings and films made of CNCs are much more prone to fracture due to their high brittleness. Our work demonstrates a unique composite barrier coating system of CNF and CNC that synergistically enables oil and grease resistance (a kit rating of 11) comparable to fluorochemicals. It also demonstrates a significant increase in air resistance (∼by a factor of about 300), and a reduction in oxygen transmission rate (∼by a factor of about 260) compared to uncoated paper. The improvements in oil and gas barrier properties were evaluated with respect to the molecular, chemical, and structural properties of the developed coatings.

Keywords: Barrier coatings; Cellulose nanocrystals; Cellulose nanofibers; Fluorochemicals; Multilayer coatings; Oil and grease resistance; Oxygen transmission rate.