Electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofibers: effects of degree of hydrolysis and enhanced water stability

ArticlePOLYMER JOURNAL. 42(3):273-276 (2010)journal articl

Enhancement of PLA-PVA surface adhesion in bilayer assemblies by PLA aminolisation

Data Availability: The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time due to legal or ethical reasons.Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) present complementary barrier properties, and their combination in multilayer assemblies (laminates) could provide materials with more effective barrier capacity for food packaging purposes. However, their low chemical affinity compromises adequate polymer adhesion. Surface free energy modification of thermo-processed PLA films through treatment with 1,6-hexanediamine was used to enhance adhesion with polar PVA aqueous solutions. Treatments of 1 and 3 min increased the polar component of the solid surface tension, while treatments above 10 min provoked a corrosive effect in the films structure. Extensibility analyses of PVA solutions loaded with carvacrol (15 wt.%) and different Tween 85 ratios on PLA-activated surfaces allowed the selection of the 1-min aminolysed surface for obtaining PLA-PVA bilayers, by casting PVA solutions on the PLA films. This study revealed that despite aminolisation enhancing the PLA surface affinity for aqueous PVA solutions, casting-obtained bilayers presented limited oxygen barrier effectiveness due to heterogeneous thickness of PVA layer in the laminates.The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain (project AGL2016-76699-R). The author A. Tampau thanks MINECO for the pre-doctoral research grant #BES-2014-068100.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio