The Role of Natural and Renewable Resources in Developing Eco-Friendly Paper Coatings for Packaging Applications

A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Functional Polymer Coatings and Films".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 16 December 2025 | Viewed by 1171

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Chair of Information and Graphic Arts Technology, Department of Textiles, Graphic Arts and Design, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Snezniska 5, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: paper; boards; coating; printing; viscoelastic properties; physico-mechanical evaluation; quality assessment; recycling; process modeling; standardization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chair of Information and Graphic Arts Technology, Department of Textiles, Graphic Arts and Design, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Snezniska 5, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: paper; cardboard; packaging; coatings; characterization of materials; sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Paper coating is a finishing process in which the optical and printing properties are improved and the physico-mechanical properties deteriorate. The finishing process transforms the printed product into an end product that must not be damaged in any way. To prevent the surface of the coating from being damaged during bending and folding, the paper/cardboard must have the properties of layering and even distribution of forces on the outside. The negative effect is also reflected in the appearance of the end product, as it leads to various complaints that manufacturers want to avoid.

Coated papers must have the ability of an elastic body, which is largely influenced by the choice of components of the coating mixture. The choice of pigments depends on the amount of deformation of the paper/board. Calcium carbonate is the more suitable choice for higher loads as CaCO3 particles tend to have a round, isometric shape and therefore do not damage the fibres, whereas kaolin particles have a flat shape which damages the fibres more quickly but offers better resistance to cracking when the particles are loaded axially during bending. Starch is used more often due to its low price, which is important for the production process, but due to the low elastic properties of the binder, it more often leads to damage to the coating, i.e., cracking. When folding the paper/cardboard in the finishing process, other parameters must be taken into account to avoid damage to the coating, e.g., the surface mass of the base paper, the amount of coating, the stiffness and thickness, as well as environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, the structure of the coating, which consists of natural or synthetic compounds, etc. In this Special Issue, we would like to encourage you to share with us your research results in the field of the influence of coating chemistry on the final use in paper/board and printing production.

The theme of this Special Issue broadly includes (but is not limited to) the following:

  • Natural, synthetic and/or renewable coatings;
  • Eco-friendly coatings;
  • Packaging application of coated polymers;
  • Evaluation of print quality on coated surfaces;
  • Novel evaluation methods for the characterization of coated surfaces.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Klemen Možina
Prof. Dr. Diana Gregor-Svetec
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • natural coatings
  • synthetic coatings
  • renewable resources
  • coating surface evaluation
  • print quality
  • packaging materials
  • contact and noncontact measuring technique for surface topography evaluation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

25 pages, 2022 KiB  
Review
Recent Research Progress of Polysaccharide Polymer Coatings for Improving Properties of Paper-Based Packaging Materials
by Lan Yang, Qian-Yu Yuan, Ching-Wen Lou, Jia-Horng Lin and Ting-Ting Li
Coatings 2025, 15(3), 326; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings15030326 - 11 Mar 2025
Viewed by 897
Abstract
With the increasing attention paid to environmental pollution, paper-based packaging materials have gradually gained favor among people. Paper-based materials are very environmentally friendly and renewable packaging materials. However, the mechanical properties and hydrophobicity of paper-based packaging materials are relatively poor, and they have [...] Read more.
With the increasing attention paid to environmental pollution, paper-based packaging materials have gradually gained favor among people. Paper-based materials are very environmentally friendly and renewable packaging materials. However, the mechanical properties and hydrophobicity of paper-based packaging materials are relatively poor, and they have high requirements for the usage environment and occasions. Therefore, the application of paper-based materials as packaging materials is greatly limited. Polysaccharide polymers, as coatings, have good biocompatibility and are environmentally friendly. They have certain potential in improving the hydrophobicity and mechanical properties of packaging materials. This review article introduces the four kinds of most used polysaccharide polymers, elaborates on their characteristics, and discusses their advantages in enhancing the performance of paper-based packaging materials. It also explores methods such as chemical modification to improve the hydrophobicity of polysaccharide polymers as coatings. Finally, this review discusses the combination of polysaccharide polymer coatings with paper-based packaging materials and provides prospects for the future. Full article
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