RT Journal Article
T1 Wheat gluten/montmorillonite biocomposites: Effect of pH on the mechanical properties and clay dispersion
A1 Cortés Triviño, Esperanza
A1 Martinez García, Inmaculada
K1 Bioplastics
K1 Bionanocomposites
K1 Polymer Processing
AB The addition of inorganic fillers into a bioplastic could increase its mechanical properties, which will be influenced strongly by the type of the clay dispersion. In this work, we have used montmorillonite nanoclays (MMT) to prepare biocomposites by means of an extrusion process. We present herein the effect of the pH and the addition of montmorillonite nanoclays (MMT) on the barrier and mechanical properties of wheat gluten based bioplastics. The pH of the samples was modified by adding aqueous solution of a strong acid or base (H2SO4 and NaOH). Tensile, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), water absorption and X-ray tests were carried out to study the influence of the above-mentioned variables on the physicochemical properties and rheological behaviour of bioplastics and biocomposites obtained. Tensile results showed that both Young’s modulus and tensile strength are higher at unmodified pH. However, the addition of MMT to an alkaline biopolymer matrix produced remarkable improvements in the rheological and mechanical properties because of a high exfoliation of the nanoclay noticeable in X-ray results. To summarise, extrusion process and the use of nanoclays present an excellent opportunity to develop wheat gluten bioplastics able to replace conventional products.
PB Budapest University of Technology and Economics
SN 1788-618X
YR 2018
FD 2018-02
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/25257
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/25257
LA eng
NO Cortes-Trivino, E., & Martinez, I. (2018). Wheat gluten/montmorillonite biocomposites: Effect of pH on the mechanical properties and clay dispersion. In Express Polymer Letters (Vol. 12, Issue 7, pp. 616–627). Department of Polymer Engineering, Scientific Society of Mechanical Engineering. https://doi.org/10.3144/expresspolymlett.2018.52
NO This work is part of a research project sponsored by ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad’ from Spanish Government (Ref. CTQ2015-71164-P). The authors gratefully acknowledge their financial support. The authors also acknowledge to the Microscopy Service (CITIUS-Universidad de Sevilla) for providing full access and assistance to the Libra 120 equipment. In addition, the authors gratefully acknowledge Asunción Fernández for her technical support in the Microscopy Service.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026