Abstract:
Bio nano-composites based packaging materials have a bright future for a broad range
of applications in the food and biomedical industry. In addition to innovative active
and intelligent packaging, bifunctional characteristics are also being developed.
Considerable efforts have been made to utilize the unique properties of MOFs as
energy materials in developing high performance catalyst material. A zeolitic
imidazolate framework (ZIF-67) based (loading 2-10 wt.%), pre and post pyrolysis
composite of poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) is studied as a model system to investigate the
role of interfacial interaction in molecular packing, glass transition process and tensile
properties. Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIF) is one of the potential candidates
as a highly conducting network with large surface area. Furthermore, it has possibility
to be used as the support for the packaging material. Molecular packing is changed
throughout the polymer matrix with increase in additive loading. This happens because
interparticle distance and interphase width becomes comparable. At the highest
loading, PVA shows bulk glass transition temperature because of the non-significant
volume fraction of interphase resulting from aggregation of ZIF. The best mechanical
properties are exhibited by a moderate loading of pyrolyzed ZIF-67 i.e. at 4%. By
comparing the maximum stress endured by membranes containing pyrolyzed and non
pyrolyzed ZIF-67, the composites containing pyrolyzed ZIF are more strong. It can
attributed to the stronger interactions between the exfoliated ions and the polymer
matrix.
