| 1. |
- Johansson, Kristin, 1983-
(författare)
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Oxygen-reducing enzymes in coatings and films for active packaging
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Oxygen scavengers are used in active packages to protect the food against deteriorative oxidation processes. The aim of this work was to investigate the possibilities to produce oxygen-scavenging packaging materials based on oxygen-reducing enzymes. The enzymes were incorporated into a dispersion coating formulation applied onto a food-packaging board using conventional laboratory coating techniques.Various enzymes were used: a glucose oxidase, an oxalate oxidase and three laccases originating from different organisms. All of the enzymes were successfully incorporated into a coating layer and could be reactivated after drying. For at least two of the enzymes, re-activation was possible not only by using liquid water but also by using water vapour. Re-activation of the glucose oxidase and a laccase required relative humidities of greater than 75% and greater than 92%, respectively.Catalytic reduction of oxygen gas by glucose oxidase was promoted by creating an open structure through addition of clay to the coating at a level above the critical pigment volume concentration. Migration of the enzyme and the substrate was reduced by adding an extrusion-coated liner of polypropylene on top of the coating.For the laccase-catalysed reduction of oxygen it was possible to use lignin derivatives as substrates for the enzymatic reaction. The laccase-catalysed reaction created a polymeric network by cross-linking of lignin-based entities, which resulted in increased stiffness and increased water-resistance of biopolymer films. The laccases were also investigated with regard to their potential to function as oxygen scavengers at low temperatures. At 7°C all three laccases retained more than 20% of the activity they had at room temperature (25°C), which suggests that the system is also useful for packaging of refrigerated food.
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| 2. |
- Nyflött, Åsa, 1986-
(författare)
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Structural Studies and Modelling of Oxygen Transport in Barrier Materials for Food Packaging
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The requirements of food packages are to ensure food safety and quality, to minimize spoilage, and to provide an easy way to store and handle food. To meet these demands for fibre-based food packages, barrier coatings are generally used to regulate the amount of gases entering a package, as some gases are detrimental to food quality. Oxygen, for example, initiates lipid oxidation in fatty foods. Bakery products may also be sensitive to oxygen.This thesis focused on mass transport of oxygen in order to gain deeper knowledge in the performance of barrier coatings and to develop means to optimize the performance of barrier coatings. This experimental study along with computer modelling characterized the structure of barrier materials with respect to the mass transport process.This project was performed as part of the multidisciplinary industrial graduate school VIPP (www.kau.se/en/vipp) - Values Created in Fibre Based Processes and Products – at Karlstad University, with the financial support from the Knowledge Foundation, Sweden, and Stora Enso.
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| 3. |
- Ragnarsson, Micael, 1972-
(författare)
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Variations Related to Print Mottle in Starch-Containing Paper Coatings
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Starch in paper coatings is known to increase the risk of print mottle in lithographic offset printing. The objective of this study was to increase the understanding of this behaviour. Four phenomena that could lead to print mottle, where the presence of starch might be important, have been identified: uneven binder migration, uneven coating mass distribution, uneven deformation during calendering and differential shrinkage. The latter three were investigated in this project.Starch-containing coating colours often have high water retention. A relationship between the water retention of the coating colours and the distribution of coating thickness was found in a pilot trial. A theory is proposed, where the surface profile of the base paper beneath the blade, that governs the coat weight distribution in blade coating, is affected by moisture from the dewatering coating colours and the compressive force exerted by the blade.Drying strategies were studied to see whether they would induce porosity variations in the coating layers. There is a strong connection between the rate of evaporation and the shrinkage of the coating layer, but no porosity variations due to the choice of drying strategy were found. Shrinkage is governed by the capillary forces. At the same capillary pressure, the coating shrinks more for some binder systems, which is suggested to be due to a weaker chemical interaction between the binder and the pigment.Oxidized starch/latex coatings, stained with a fluorescent marker, had a greater standard deviation in fluorescence intensity than CMC/latex coatings caused by a difference in either porosity or latex distribution. It was shown that calendering introduces porosity variations into the coating layer that are larger for starch-containing coatings. The drying strategies appeared to have a significant effect on these porosity variations and they correlated positively with print mottle in some cases and in another case negatively. In the case of the negatively correlated, the mottle was probably caused by variations in surface porosity existing prior to the calendering.
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| 4. |
- Javed, Asif, 1982-
(författare)
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Effects of plasticizing and crosslinking on the mechanical and barrier properties of coatings based on blends of starch and poly(vinyl alcohol)
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the last decades, intensive research has been carried out in order to replace oil-based polymers with bio-based polymers due to growing environmental concerns. So far, most of the barrier materials used in food packaging are petroleum-based materials. The purpose of the barrier is to protect the packaged food from oxygen, water vapour, water and fat. The mechanical and barrier properties of coatings based on starch-plasticizer and starch-poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH)-plasticizer blends have been studied in the work described in this thesis. The plasticizers used were glycerol, polyethylene glycol and citric acid. In a second step, polyethylene coatings were extruded onto paperboard pre-coated with a starch-PVOH-plasticizer blend. The addition of PVOH to the starch increased the flexibility of the film. Curing of the film led to a decrease in flexibility and an increase in tensile strength. The flexibility of the starch-PVOH films was increased more when glycerol or polyethylene glycol was added than citric acid. The storage modulus of the starch-PVOH films containing citric acid increased substantially at high temperature.It was seen that the addition of polyethylene glycol or citric acid to the starch-PVOH blend resulted in an enrichment of PVOH at the surface of the films. Tensile tests on the films indicated that citric acid acted as a compatibilizer and increased the compatibility of the starch and PVOH in the blend. The addition of citric acid to the coating recipe substantially decreased the water vapour transmission rate through the starch-PVOH coated paperboard, which indicated that citric acid acts as a cross-linker for starch and/or PVOH. The starch-PVOH coatings containing citric acid showed oxygen-barrier properties similar to those of pure PVOH or of a starch-PVOH blend without plasticizer when four coating layers were applied on a paperboard. The oxygen-barrier properties of coatings based on a starch-PVOH blend containing citric acid indicated a cross-linking and increase in compatibility of the starch-PVOH blends.Polyethylene extrusion coating on a pre-coated paperboard resulted in a clear reduction in the oxygen transmission rate for all the pre-coating formulations containing plasticizers. The addition of a plasticizer to the pre-coating reduced the adhesion of polyethylene to pre-coated board. Polyethylene extrusion coating gave a board with a lower oxygen transmission rate when the paperboard was pre-coated with a polyethylene-glycol-containing formulation than with a citric-acid-containing formulation. The addition of polyethylene glycol to pre-coatings indicated an increase in wetting of the pre-coated paperboard by the polyethylene melt, and this may have sealed the small defects in the pre-coating leading to low oxygen transmission rate. The increase in brittleness of starch-PVOH films containing citric acid at a high temperature seemed to have a dominating effect on the barrier properties developed by the extrusion coating process.
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| 5. |
- Montibon, Elson, 1979-
(författare)
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Modification of Paper into Conductive Substrate for Electronic Functions : Deposition, Characterization and Demonstration
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis investigates the modification of paper into an ion- and electron-conductive material, and as a renewable material for electronic device. The study stretches from investigating the interaction between the cellulosic materials and the conducting polymer to demonstrating the performance of the conductive paper by printing the electronic structure on the surface of the conductive paper. Conducting materials such as conducting polymer, ionic liquids, and multi-wall carbon nanotubes were deposited into the fiber networks.In order to investigate the interaction between the conducting polymer and cellulosic material, the adsorption of the conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(4-styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) onto microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was performed. Electroconductive papers were produced via dip coating and rod coating, and characterized. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) / Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) images showed that the conducting polymer was deposited in the fiber and in fiber-fiber contact areas. The X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of dip-coated paper samples showed PEDOT enrichment on the surface. The effects of fiber beating and paper formation, addition of organic solvents and pigments (TiO2, MWCNT), and calendering were investigated. Ionic paper was produced by depositing an ionic liquid into the commercial base paper. The dependence to temperature and relative humidity of the ionic conductivity was also investigated. In order to reduce the roughness and improve its printability, the ionic paper was surface-sized using different coating rods. The bulk resistance increased with increasing surface sizing. The electrochemical performance of the ionic paper was confirmed by printing PEDOT:PSS on the surface. There was change in color of the polymer when a voltage was applied. It was demonstrated that the ionic paper is a good ionic conductor that can be used as component for a more compact electronic device construction.Conductive paper has a great potential to be a flexible substrate on which an electronic structure can be constructed. The conduction process in the modified paper is due to the density of charge carriers (ions and electrons), and their short range mobility in the material. The charge carrying is believed to be heterogeneous, involving many charged species as the paper material is chemically heterogeneous.
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| 6. |
- Olsson, Erik, 1984-
(författare)
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Effects of Citric Acid on Starch-Based Barrier Coatings
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- With growing environmental concerns, efforts are made to replace petroleum based products with renewable alternatives. This is particularly evident in the packaging industry, where replacing synthetic polymers with renewable materials is of considerable interest. Materials for food packaging need to give protection, acting as a barrier against substances that can adversely affect the food quality such as water and oxygen.In this work, barrier dispersion coatings based on starch were used to produce coated papers which act as barrier against water and oxygen. However, since starch is both a hydrophilic and hygroscopic material, this barrier material becomes problematic to use at high relative humidity. In order to reduce this problem and improve the barrier properties enabling starch based barrier materials to be used in food packaging applications, two approaches were studied.Citric acid was utilized as a cross-linker of the starch and it was found to reduce the moisture sorption, the molecular movement and swelling at high relative humidity. It was seen that cross-linking and hydrolysis due to the low pH both affected the barrier properties significantly, but in opposing directions. By controlling these two reactions it was seen that this could lead to reduced gas permeability. It was also seen that cross-linking of starch by citric acid occurs at low temperatures, 70 °C at pH as high as 6.5.Starch nano-composites were produced by incorporating montmorillonite, to the barrier dispersion to improve the barrier properties. It was seen that the suspension viscosity was reduced by poly(ethylene glycol) and citric acid adsorption on the montmorillonite particles. Also, a tendency for improved barrier properties with reduced aggregate volume fraction and reduced swelling was observed. It was also seen that up scaling this formulation to pilot scale was possible and that promising results were achieved.
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| 7. |
- Javed, Asif, 1982-
(författare)
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Effects of plasticizing and crosslinking on coatings based on blends of starch-PVOH and starch-lignin
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A barrier material is usually needed on a fiber-based food package to protect the packed food from gases and moisture and thus maintain its quality. Barrier materials presently used in food packaging applications are mostly petroleum-based polymers. Over the last few decades, efforts have been made to replace petroleum-based materials with bio-based materials. The present work has focused on the possibility of using a natural barrier material on a fiber-based food package and the effects of plasticizing and cross-linking on the mechanical and barrier properties, and the stability in water of coatings based on starch-poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH) and starch-lignin blends.The flexibility of the starch films was increased by adding PVOH further by adding a plasticizer. It was shown that citric acid can act as a compatibilizer and cross-linker for starch and PVOH, and the use of citric acid may slow down the diffusion of both oxygen and water vapor if a multilayer coating strategy is used. The addition of polyethylene glycol to the pre-coating recipe resulted in a lower oxygen transmission rate through polyethylene-extruded board than when citric acid was added to the pre-coating. The flexibility of the barrier coatings and the properties of the base substrate affect the cracking tendency of the barrier coatings during the creasing and folding of a barrier-coated board.The addition of lignin to the starch reduced the migration of starch from the starch-lignin films and the addition of ammonium zirconium carbonate as a cross-linker reduced the migration of both starch and lignin from the films. The addition of starch to the lignin solution increased the solubility of lignin at low pH, and the pilot-coated board showed a significant decrease in migration of lignin from the coatings containing ammonium zirconium carbonate when the pH of the coating solution was decreased.
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| 8. |
- Johnson, Johanna, 1970-
(författare)
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Aspects of Flexographic Print Quality and Relationship to some Printing Parameters
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Flexographic printing is a common printing method in the packaging field. The printing method is characterized primarily by the flexible printing plate and the low viscosity inks which make it suitable for use on almost any substrate. The object of this study was to obtain further knowledge of the some important mechanisms of flexographic printing and how they influence the print quality. The thesis deals with printing primarily on board and liner but also on newsprint with water-borne ink using a full-scale flexographic central impression (CI) printing press. Several printing trials have been performed with a focus on the chemical interaction between the ink and substrate and the physical contact between the ink-covered printing plate and the substrate. Multicolour printing exposes the substrate to water from the water-containing ink. The emphasis was to investigate the relation between print quality and water-uptake of the paper surface with heat and water. Printing trials was carried out on substrates possessing a hydrophobic, and also a rather hydrophilic surface using a regular commercial water-borne ink. The favorable effect which water or surfactant solution had on the hydrophobic substrate with regard to print mottle could depend on its surface compressibility in combination with the hydrophobic nature of its surface that could affect the wetting properties. Conventional printing involves physical contact between plate and ink and between ink and substrate. A method for measuring the dynamic nip pressure using thin load cells is presented. Print quality was influenced by the plate material. A correction procedure taking into account the size of the sensor was developed in order to estimate the maximum dynamic pressure in the printing nip. An attempt was made to identify essential mechanical and chemical parameters, and also geometrical properties of the plate that affected print quality. Laboratory printing trials were carried out and a multivariate analysis was applied for evaluation of print quality data. The impact of the plate properties on print quality was evident. The essential properties of the plate that influence print quality were the small-scale roughness and long-scale roughness.
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| 9. |
- Jonhed, Anna, 1975-
(författare)
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Properties of modified starches and their use in the surface treatment of paper
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The papermaking industry uses a large amount of starch each year, both as a wet-end additive and as a rheological modifier in surface sizing and coating colors. It is important to be able to reduce the amount of chemicals used in the papermaking and surface treatment process, to reduce costs and to make the process even more efficient. Interest in new high-performance starches is great. By using these new types of starches, improved recycling of barrier products may be obtained as well as a reduction in the use of synthetic sizing agents. The objectives of this work were to understand the behavior of temperature-responsive hydrophobically modified starches, where the solubility in water simply can be adjusted by temperature or by polymer charge, to improve the barrier properties, like the water vapor permeability, mechanical properties and water resistance (Cobb and contact angle) of papers surface sized by starch-containing solutions, and to investigate the potential for industrial use of these temperature-responsive starches. It was demonstrated that the temperature-responsive starches phase separate upon cooling and, depending on the charge density of the starch, a particulate precipitation or a gel-like structure was obtained. The starch with zero net charge showed a larger increase in turbidity than the starch with a cationic net charge, indicating that particulate precipitation is favored by a zero net charge and that the formation of a gel network is favored by charged starch molecules. Further, the starches formed inclusion complexes with surfactants, giving stabilization to the starches in the presence of surfactants. The net charge density of the starch and the charge of the surfactant determined whether or not an inclusion complex would form between them. Important mechanisms for the stability of the starch seemed to be formation of mixed micellar-like structures between the hydrophobic chain of the starch and the surfactant along the starch backbone in addition to formation of inclusion complexes between the starch and the surfactant. The hydrophobically modified starches showed higher hydrophobic surface character when applied to the paper surface above the critical phase separation temperature than with application at room temperature. Free films of the temperature-responsive starches showed good barrier against oxygen, but no barrier against water vapor. The mechanical properties decreased with addition of glycerol to the films.
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| 10. |
- Lestelius, Magnus, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Oxygen permeabilityand economic-environmental impact studies of some polyvinyl alcohol dispersionbarrier coatings for packaging applications
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Purposes of employing barrier coatings in packaging, and in particular food packaging, can be to increase the shelf life, preserve colour, odour, and taste, and to protect from a harmful environment in general. Barrier coatings can thus help to reduce food waste along the value chain until end use. Including both materials choice for packaging and the possible fates of the used package, even further steps to provide greater knowledge for decisions on choices of packaging solutions. To that end, we have conducted several experimental and transport modeling studies on oxygen barrier coatings performance. The coating system of choice has been dispersion coatings of poly vinyl alcohol (PVOH), with additions of kaolin. Physical and chemical features of the coatings were characterized to obtain information on polymer crystallinity, free volume and filler orientation as these characteristics are influential to the oxygen mass transport performance. In turn, the oxygen mass transport was also measured, both in steady state and dynamically. In so doing, we obtained information useful for developing a general model to describe the oxygen permeability taking into account the physical and chemical features, described above, of the coating layer. Attempts on describing the interdependence and impact, for instance between crystalline and amorphous polymer regions and moisture, was added to the model. The model showed agreement to experimental data for PVOH-kaolin coating in this particular case. However, the basic permeability model has been applied to many different polymers.To further explore the potential of these types of coating, which are technically possible to produce in paperboard production, an economic-environmental impact comparison to other existing material solutions was made. Four barrier material alternatives – starch, polyethylene, ethyl vinyl alcohol (chosen as an alternative for PVOH, where data was difficult to obtain) and kaolin, and latex and kaolin, were analyzed with respect to cost and global warming potential. Weighting and comparing cost to environmental aspect, weighting factors based on interviews with experts in the packaging value chain, starch emerges as the most sustainable alternative. However, previous coating and mass transport studies also shows how these renewable materials require some further technical development to be competitive.The mass transport model can serve as a tool for customizing barrier coatings and to predict the barrier performance, as permeability is obtained and thus shelf-life estimation is possible. The overall concept, the combination of assessment of structural performance and the environmental studies, can be employed to find sustainable food packaging solutions.
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