New Strategy to Obtain Acrylic/Casein Nanoparticles with Controlled Compatibility

PICCHIO, MATÍAS L.; MINARI, ROQUE J.; BARANDIARAN, MARÍA J.; GUGLIOTTA, LUIS M.

Porto do Galinhas

Congreso; XIV Latin American Symposium on Polymers/XII Ibero American Congress on Polymers; 2014

ABPOL

Hybrid latexes derived from proteins have gained a technological interest in last decades because they attempt to achieve improved properties with respect to the neat materials by chemically linking both components. The explored alternative, based on the primary radical formation onto the protein chains through the redox initiation between the casein amino groups and a hydroperoxide, produces a limited degree of compatibilization to guarantee the synergic effect between both components. A novel strategy that overcomes these limitations is presented. This strategy is based on the use of crosslinkable casein that, in addition to the characteristic grafting capacity by redox initiation with hydroperoxides, contains acrylic groups able to radicalary polymerize. The degree of compatibility was significantly increased and controlled by functionalizing casein with varied amounts of pendant propagating points per protein. Finally, the improved degree of compatibility obtained when using crosslinkable casein was validated by analyzing some properties of the acrylic/casein films, such as opacity, water resistance and solvent permeability.