Surface engineering of cellulose film with myristic acid for high strength, self-cleaning and biodegradable packaging
Qianqian Chen1, Chunyu Chang1, Lina Zhang1
1College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Engineering Research Center of Natural Polymer-based Medical Materials in Hubei Province, Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
Abstract:
Developing sustainable, renewable, hydrophobic, and biodegradable packaging material to replace petroleum-based plastic products remains a challenge. Herein, original cellulose/myristic acid composite films were fabricated by solvent-vaporized controllable crystallization of natural myristic acid on anisotropic cellulose films. The myristic acid crystals that evenly distributed on the surface of cellulose film generated micronano binary structure and the interstitial space between microplates, resulting in high hydrophobicity (water contact angle = 132°) and excellent self-cleaning property of the composite film. The resultant film exhibited good tensile strength and toughness under both dry (188.7 MPa, 34.4 MJ m-3) and humid conditions (119.9 MPa, 28.7 MJ m-3). Moreover, these composite films could be degraded completely after approximately 102 days in soil with an average environment temperature of 32 °C. This work provided a low-cost and sustainable pathway for the fabrication of high-strength, self-cleaning, and waterproof packaging materials instead of plastics.
