Films made from cellulose esters are often used as bio-based food packaging materials. In this work, we studied the incorporation of nine essential oils into cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate propionate, and cellulose acetate butyrate. The essential oils were derived from lime, nutmeg, eugenol, pimenta berry, rosemary, petitgrain, coffee, anise, and trans-cinnamaldehyde. In almost all cases, the addition of essential oils to cellulose ester reduced tensile strength and Young’s modulus but increased elongation at break. Thus, an essential oil acted like a plasticizer that enhanced the flexibility of the polymer. Essential oils containing limonene and pinenes (e.g., from lime and nutmeg) gave the strongest plasticizing action, whereas essentials oils containing fatty acids (e.g., from coffee) were the weakest plasticizers. The water barrier property was improved the most when essential oils were added to cellulose acetate; however, different cellulose ester/essential oil combinations showed different effects. Whereas most of the essential oils decreased the transparency of the films, eugenol, pimento berry, and anise were notable exceptions. Thus, depending on a specific application, a particular polymer/EO combination can be used to give the optimal performance.

中文翻译：

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掺入精油的纤维素酯薄膜的性能评估

由纤维素酯制成的薄膜通常用作生物基食品包装材料。在这项工作中，我们研究了将九种精油掺入醋酸纤维素，醋酸丙酸纤维素和醋酸丁酸纤维素中的方法。精油衍生自石灰，肉豆蔻，丁子香酚，多香果，迷迭香，petitgrain，咖啡，茴香和反式肉桂醛。在几乎所有情况下，向纤维素酯中添加精油都会降低抗张强度和杨氏模量，但会增加断裂伸长率。因此，香精油起增塑剂的作用，增强了聚合物的柔韧性。含有柠檬烯和松油的精油（例如，来自石灰和肉豆蔻）具有最强的增塑作用，而含有脂肪酸的精油（例如，来自咖啡）则是最弱的增塑剂。当将精油添加到醋酸纤维素中时，防水性能得到最大的改善。但是，不同的纤维素酯/精油组合显示出不同的效果。大多数精油降低了薄膜的透明度，丁香酚，多香果和茴香是明显的例外。因此，取决于特定的应用，可以使用特定的聚合物/ EO组合来提供最佳性能。