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Sustainable Packaging

Sustainable packaging includes recyclable mono-polyolefin packaging, recyclable paper packaging and degradable/compostable plastic packaging. The objectives of our sustainable food packaging study are to secure food safety and reduce food waste, which bring benefits to Singapore food security, and, at the same time, provide solutions to solve plastic pollution for sustainable economy growth. 

In order to achieve high performance food packaging, advanced functional fillers are designed and synthesized and further incorporated into polymer with controlled filler dispersion and tuned interfacial bonding between filler and polymer to produce advanced hybrid polymeric materials. The structure-property-performance relationship of the developed hybrid polymeric materials is also our research focus. 

Our research journey starts from UIBR to technology development and innovation.  
2020 10 05 Cicular Materials

Capabilities

At Sustainable Packaging group, we have successfully developed hybrid silicate/polymer materials with unique hierarchical structure to achieve high barrier functionalities against oxygen and water vapour. The key research capability is of incorporation of plate-like gas-impermeable silicate fillers into polymer to create a tortuous path for gas and water vapor molecules. Flexible and recyclable mono-polyolefin films for food packaging are thus produced using conventional coating/lamination production machinery, offering a cost effective solution for prolonging the shelf life of packed food while maintaining acceptable levels of transparency. The barrier technology has been extended to paper packaging and compostable antimicrobial barrier coating.

In order to further extend the shelf life of oxygen sensitive foods, high performance nanostructured Fe@carbon oxygen scavenger is produced from biomass via hydrothermal reaction. Nano-sized Fe particles with size less than 20 nm are grown and embedded in the porous outer layer of carbon spheres, leading to high oxygen scavenging capacity and triggered oxygen scavenging in the presence of moisture. The oxygen scavenger has been incorporated into polymer coating or compounded into polyolefin to produce transparent oxygen scavenging packaging. 

Highlights & Achievements

Impactful publications

Functional Filler

  1. Boëver R, Langlois A, Li X*, Claverie JP* “Graphitic dots combining photophysical characteristics of organic molecular fluorophores and inorganic quantum dots” JACS Au 2021 (Online publication)
  2. Ma YY, Yang T, Zou HY, Zang WJ, Kou ZK, Mao L, Feng YP, Shen L, Pennycook SJ, Duan LL, Li X*, Wang J* “Synergizing Mo Single Atoms and Mo2C Nanoparticles on CNTs Synchronizes Selectivity and Activity of Electrocatalytic N2 Reduction to Ammonia” Adv Mater 2020, 32, e2002177 
  3. Li S, Zhao ZC, Zhao JZ, Zhang ZT, Li X*, Zhang JM* “Recent advances of ferro-, piezo- and pyroelectric nanomaterials for catalytic applications” ACS Appl Nano Mater, 2020, 3, 1063.
Food Packaging Applications

  1. Huang JY, Lim QJ, Chieng YY, Li X, Zhou WB “Performance evaluation of a novel food packaging material based on clay/polyvinyl alcohol nanocomposite” Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies, 2017, 43, 216.
  2. Huang JY, Li X, Zhou WB “Safety assessment of nanocomposite for food packaging application” Trends in Food Science and Technology, 2015, 45, 187.
  3. Huang JY, Chieng YY, Li X, Zhou WB “Experimental and mathematical assessment of migration from multilayer food packaging containing a novel clay/polymer nanocomposite” Food and Bioprocess Technology, 2015, 8, 382.

Commercialization

  1. High barrier technology was licensed to Aegis Packaging, a Singapore start-up company that was founded because of this technology, to produce silicate polymeric coating suspension and high barrier mono-polyolefin films for food packaging 
  2. High barrier technology was licensed to Dou Yee, a local large enterprise, to produce high barrier mono-polyolefin films for food packaging and electronic components packaging

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