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Influences of Acid and Alkali on Mechanical Properties of Compression-Molded Gluten Bioplastics

¹Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Ministry of Education, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 China. ²Corresponding author. Phone: +86-571-87953075. Fax: +86-571-87952522. E-mail: s_yh0411@zju.edu.cn or zhengqiang@zju.edu.cn

The present work was focused on the effects of acid and alkali on the uniaxial extensional deformation of gluten bioplastics compression-molded at 80 and 110°C. Water absorption and morphology observation were also performed to characterize the properties and morphology of the gluten bioplastics. The results show that HCl did not show catalysis function for cross-linking proteins at 80°C and even hindered the cross-linking reaction at 110°C. On the other hand, NaOH generally accelerated the cross-linking reaction during compression-molding, thus significantly improving Young's modulus, tensile strength, and strain at break. However, an NaOH content >0.5 wt% could cause adverse effects at molding temperatures as high as 110°C.