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Abstract
Fossil-based polymers dominate the packaging industry thanks to their performance and low cost. However, their negative impact on our biosphere demands a paradigm shift in the industry. Nature may provide an alternative in the form of suberin. Suberin is an amorphous polyester present in plants where it contributes to controlling the water and gas exchange with the environment. The bark is rich in suberin and it represents a large by-product of the forestry industry, hence, it is a potential source of renewable monomers for the synthesis of packaging materials. In this study, we demonstrated that un-refined suberin monomers, extracted from birch bark, could be exploited to synthesize a cross-linked polyester film through a standard melt-polycondensation and compression molding process. The polyester film resulted in being translucent while blocking UV radiation, and to have an elastomer-like behavior. The measured water vapor transmission rate was comparable to other polyesters, such as polylactide and polycaprolactone. Finally, the thermal gravimetric analysis showed the lack of any unreacted suberin monomers, suggesting food packaging as a potential application, where migration of monomers must be prevented.
Supplementary materials
Title
Supporting Information
Description
Supporting information containing: 13C NMR spectrum of EFA (Figure S1); XRD spectrum of EFA (Figure S2); FT-IR spectra of EFA, PEFA and PEFA film (Figure S3); TGA thermogram of EFA in oxygen atmosphere (Figure S4); PEFA film strip after tensile test (Figure S5); FT-IR spectroscopy band assignment (Table S1); 1H and 13C NMR chemical shifts of the EFA fraction and molecular structure for the identified C18 ω-hydroxy fatty acids (Table S2).
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