Ispitivanje barijernih i mehaničkih svojstava filmova na bazi modifikovanog pektina

In recent years, the interest for pectin modification has been significantly increased. A number of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups distributed along the backbone as well as a certain amount of neutral sugars presented as side chains make pectin capable of preparing a broad spectrum of derivatives. By forming pectin derivatives, their properties may be modified and some other new functional properties may be obtained. The accumulation of synthetic plastics, mainly from food packaging causes serious environmental problems, encouraging research efforts directed toward development of biodegradable films and coatings.  Pectin has good film forming properties but pectin based films often suffer from poor mechanical and barier properties.  Present study reports the evaluation of mechanical and water vapor properties of the films based on modified pectin. The pectin modification was obtained in esterification reaction between hydroxyl groups from pectin and di-acyl chloride (sebacoyl chloride). The films were prepared from water solutions of the resulted derivative (2% w/v) using solvent casting method.