RT Journal Article T1 Physical crosslinking of pea protein-based bioplastics: Effect of heat and UV treatments A1 Pérez Puyana, Víctor A1 Cuartero, Pablo A1 Jiménez Rosado, Mercedes A1 Martinez García, Inmaculada A1 Romero, Alberto AB Climate change and the enhancement of ecology have generated the need to create packaging that is biodegradable and, at the same time, allows food to be preserved efficiently in order to avoid the accumulation of plastic and minimize food waste. In this sense, protein-based bioplastics are a promising alternative, but due to their limited properties they need additional crosslinking in order to compete with conventional plastics. Among them, physical crosslinking is of special interest in the food industry, as it does not generate toxicity problems. In this way, the overall objective of this work was to develop pea protein-based bioplastics by injection moulding, using two different physical crosslinking methods: heat treatment (50ºC-24 h, 120 ºC-4 h and 120 ºC-24 h) and ultraviolet (UV) treatment (50, 120 and 500 mJ/cm2). Thus, different bioplastics were compared based on their mechanical, functional and antimicrobial properties. The relevance of this study is based on the improvement of certain aspects of the mechanical and functional properties of bioplastics by the addition of an extra physical crosslinking stage to the fabrication process. In fact, UV treatment improves the antimicrobial activity of bioplastics, which gives it a significant improvement to compete with conventional plastics in the food sector. PB Elsevier SN 2214-2894 (electrónico) YR 2022 FD 2022 LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/21280 UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/21280 LA eng NO Perez-Puyana, V., Cuartero, P., Jiménez-Rosado, M., Martínez, I., & Romero, A. (2022). Physical crosslinking of pea protein-based bioplastics: Effect of heat and UV treatments. In Food Packaging and Shelf Life (Vol. 32, p. 100836). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fpsl.2022.100836 NO This work is part of a research project sponsored by “Ministerio deCiencia e Innovaci´on-Agencia Estatal de Investigaci´on” (MCI/AEI/FEDER, EU) from the Spanish Government (Ref. RTI2018–097100-BC21).The authors gratefully acknowledge their financial support. Thiswork is also possible thanks to the postdoctoral contract of Víctor M.P´erez Puyana from the “Contrataci´on de Personal Investigador Doctor”supported by the European Social Fund and Junta de Andalucía (PAIDIDOCTOR – Convocatoria 2019–2020, DOC_00586) and for the predoctoralgrant of Mercedes Jim´enez Rosado from "Ministerio de Educaci´on yFormaci´on Profesional" (FPU17/01718). DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva RD 31 may 2026