Graphene Oxide Bionanocomposite Coatings with High Oxygen Barrier Properties
by
Ilke Uysal Unalan 1,2,3
, Derya Boyacı 1,4, Masoud Ghaani 1, Silvia Trabattoni 5 and Stefano Farris 1,6,*
Ilke Uysal Unalan 1,2,3, Derya Boyacı 1,4, Masoud Ghaani 1, Silvia Trabattoni 5 and Stefano Farris 1,6,*
1
DeFENS, Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences—Packaging Division, University of Milan, via Celoria 2-20133 Milan, Italy
2
Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, İzmir University of Economics, İzmir 35330, Turkey
3
School of Packaging, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
4
Department of Food Engineering, Izmir Institute of Technology, İzmir 35430, Turkey
5
Department of Materials Science, University of Milano Bicocca, via Cozzi 55-20125 Milan, Italy
6
INSTM, National Consortium of Materials Science and Technology, Local Unit University of Milan, via Celoria 2-20133 Milan, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Mikael S. Hedenqvist
Nanomaterials 2016, 6(12), 244; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano6120244
Received: 20 November 2016 / Revised: 10 December 2016 / Accepted: 13 December 2016 / Published: 21 December 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multifunctional Polymer-Based Nanocomposites)
In this work, we present the development of bionanocomposite coatings on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) with outstanding oxygen barrier properties. Pullulan and graphene oxide (GO) were used as main polymer phase and nanobuilding block (NBB), respectively. The oxygen barrier performance was investigated at different filler volume fractions (ϕ) and as a function of different relative humidity (RH) values. Noticeably, the impermeable nature of GO was reflected under dry conditions, in which an oxygen transmission rate (OTR, mL·m−2·24 h−1) value below the detection limit of the instrument (0.01 mL·m−2·24 h−1) was recorded, even for ϕ as low as 0.0004. A dramatic increase of the OTR values occurred in humid conditions, such that the barrier performance was totally lost at 90% RH (the OTR of coated PET films was equal to the OTR of bare PET films). Modelling of the experimental OTR data by Cussler’s model suggested that the spatial ordering of GO sheets within the main pullulan phase was perturbed because of RH fluctuations. In spite of the presence of the filler, all the formulations allowed the obtainment of final materials with haze values below 3%, the only exception being the formulation with the highest loading of GO (ϕ ≈ 0.03). The mechanisms underlying the experimental observations are discussed.
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Keywords:
graphene oxide; haze; modelling; oxygen transmission rate; pullulan; relative humidity
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Uysal Unalan, I.; Boyacı, D.; Ghaani, M.; Trabattoni, S.; Farris, S. Graphene Oxide Bionanocomposite Coatings with High Oxygen Barrier Properties. Nanomaterials 2016, 6, 244.
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