High-Barrier and Antioxidant Poly(lactic acid)/Nanocellulose Multilayered Materials for Packaging

In the current context, the development of bio-based and high-performance materials is one of the main research priorities. This study aims to combine the outstanding properties of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) or nanocrystals (CNCs) with those of bio-based poly(lactic acid) (PLA). Three-phase multilayered materials (TMLs) were built up by complexing a dry CNF- or CNC-based film with two PLA sheets, using a heat-pressing process. Before the preparation of the nanocellulosic films, CNFs and CNCs were modified by the adsorption of a rosin-based nanoemulsion. The rosin mixture as a natural compound is of interest because of its low cost, renewability, hydrophobicity, and its antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. After demonstrating the efficiency of the complexing procedure, we investigated the barrier properties of the multilayered materials against both oxygen and water vapor, with highly encouraging results. In fact, the presence of nanocellulose as an inner layer between the two PLA films significantly enhanced the oxygen barrier, with a decrease in oxygen permeability comprised between 84 and 96% and between 44 and 50% for neat nanocelluloses and nanocelluloses with rosins as the inner layer, respectively. On the other hand, the antioxidant properties of the final multilayered materials including rosins were highlighted, with a highly encouraging radical scavenging activity close to 20%. Because of the simplicity and the efficiency of the proposed method, this study paves the way toward the development of hybrid multimaterials that could be highly attractive for food packaging applications.