Nanocellulose based materials for barrier and antibacterial packages

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This presentation provides an overview of the potential of nanocellulose (functionalized or not) in packaging materials like fibre-based materials or nanocomposites. The main focus is on industrialization of nanocellulose and their uses in biobased materials for imparting active properties such as barrier or antibacterials.

First microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) will be used to enhance barrier at high humidity with clay and oxidized nanocrystals. MFC coated onto cellulosic substrates as controlled delivery systems of antibacterial molecules for food-packaging would also be presented. Microscopic analyses underlined the nanoporous MFC network preserved onto the substrate surface after coating. This network was used as controlled delivery system of different and various molecules (different dimensions, structure, chemical interactions, or function). The MFC network proved its efficiency by releasing molecules progressively, preserving the antibacterial property and improving the shelf-life of food. The application of this new material was broadened up by grafting cyclodextrins. Contact active grafted MFC would also be proposed for medical packaging.

Secondly, smart nanocomposites were obtained thanks to nanocrystal grafting and biobased matrices. A new green procedure called SolReact, using the solvent as reagent would be proposed. Mechanical and barrier properties of final materials would be detailed. The main idea is to use aromatic interaction to provide new nano-adsorbers controlling molecule diffusions for barrier systems.

Presenter: Julien Bras, University of Grenoble
Dr. Julien Bras is Associate professor at Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP Pagora). He is head of the “Multiscale Biobased Material” group at LGP2 (Laboratory of Pulp & Paper Science). He has directly supervised 13 PhD and 12 Post-doc focusing on research on Biomaterials, Nanocellulose & Specialty papers. After engineer diploma in Chemistry and a PhD on Renewable Materials in 2004, he worked in industry few years as Innovation Manager within Ahlstrom Specialty paper and then left industry to become associate professor since 2006.

His expertise deals particularly with Nanocellulose, biobased and smart materials. More precisely, he proposed new way of production, characterization and functionalization of nanocellulose for several applications since about 10 years. He developed recently new high barrier MFC films and worked in MFC film preparation for drug delivery.