Factors influencing the adhesive behavior of carboxymethyl cellulose-based hydrogel for food applications

Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) hydrogels have been used as adhesive materials for food and other newly emerged innovative applications. To increase the knowledge of CMC hydrogel-based adhesives and optimize the preparation and storage conditions in practical, we prepared CMC hydrogels for cigar wrapper application and investigated their adhesive performance as affected by different CMC type, concentration, pH, temperature, and storage time, etc. Two parameters, initial adhesiveness and peel strength were used to evaluate the adhesive behavior of CMC with paper and tobacco leaf. Sample C2 with relatively medium molecular weight and medium degree of substitution values showed the best adhesive performance. Hydrogels prepared using boiled water at neutral pH presented better adhesive behavior, which was not significantly affected by storage temperature (up to 13 days). The wettability, steady shear flow behavior, dynamic rheological properties, and stress recovery performance of CMC hydrogel were measured, and their correlations to the adhesive behavior were discussed.