A study and preparation of electrospun fibre mats for agricultural packaging applications

Abstract

Thailand has great potential to produce high quality, different kinds of fruits and export them to other countries. Food packaging technologies play important roles in postharvest industries for long storage life and quality of fruits. In this research, polyethylene oxide (PEO) was studied via an electrospinning technique to produce fibre mat for agricultural packaging applications. In order to find the optimum conditions of each electrospinning parameter, the electrospinning process was divided into 4 studies; the concentration of PEO, the applied voltage, distance between needle tip to substrate and the needle size. The water vapour transmission rate (WVTR) was studied from the fibre obtained from the optimum condition. The study of the optimum conditions of each electrospinning parameter found that the optimum concentration of PEO was 6 wt% and the optimum applied voltage was at 11 kV. The optimum distance between needle tip to substrate was 15 cm and the needle size was 18 gauge, respectively. The Water vapour transmission rate was 8.3774 g/m 2 day