(65ab) Environmentally Friendly Levan- Montmorillonite Films

Levan is a naturally occurring homopolysaccharide of D-fructose. In a typical levan structure, the monomers are joined by â(2->6) linkage, while the side chains are joined to the backbone via â(2->1) linkage. The levan produced by microorganisms usually have densely packed globular structure with molecular weights greater than 0.5 million1. Levan is water soluble and has an usually low intrinsic viscosity2. It is a film former under certain conditions. Therefore levan has a potential to be made into ?green' products that are suitable for applications such as barrier coating, membrane separation and flexible packaging. However, levan films exhibit very poor mechanical properties, which would prevent any of their applications from becoming practical. It is the challenge of maintaining levan film integrity that motivated this study. Two different approaches have been tried in our study in order to improve the levan film properties. The first approach involves the use of an inorganic filler to reinforce the levan films. The second approach involves the use of a cross-linking agent to crosslink the levan polymer itself. The current report is largely comprised of the results obtained using the first approach. The levan solutions were characterized using XRD, DSC and TGA and the results indicates that levan intercalates into montmorillonite (MMT) galleries and that the interactions between MMT and levan results favorable in a change in levan thermal properties.