(563g) Barrier Coatings Derived from Cellulose and Chitin

There is a strong drive to discover and develop alternatives to conventional plastics that offer the ability to be manufactured and used in a circular manner. In a circular economy, as opposed to a linear one, materials are derived from renewable resources or recycled content, and at the end of life, they are able to be circulated back into production via a chemical, physical or biological pathway. A critical need exists to develop such materials for plastic packaging, which represents the largest contributor to unrecyclable or difficult-to-recycle plastic waste. This talk describes innovations in production of barrier films and coatings suitable for food or pharmaceutical packaging, based on combinations of cellulose- and chitin-based nanomaterials. Cellulose nanocrystals, CNCs, and chitin nanofibers or nanocrystals (ChNFs, ChNCs), are oppositely-charged, water-dispersible fibers that could form the basis of a platform of renewable, high-performance materials. In particular this talk will highlight work in creating multilayer coatings with excellent oxygen barrier properties on a variety of substrates. Challenges to industrial implementation and approaches to overcome these will also be analyzed.