Duncan Darby

α-Tocopherol-Loaded Polycaprolactone (PCL) Nanoparticles as a Heat-Activated Oxygen Scavenger

A nanoencapsulation technique was applied to an oxygen-scavenging system, and thermal processing was investigated as an activator to trigger the oxygen-scavenging reaction. α-Tocopherol-loaded polycaprolactone (PCL) nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared using an oil-in-water emulsion solvent evaporation method. The influences of iron(II) chloride, water, and thermal processing on the oxygen-scavenging capability were investigated. NPs without iron(II) chloride, moisture, and thermal processing had no oxygen-scavenging effect. However, the oxygen content (%) in the cup headspace of 20.9% decreased to 20.4% when the oxygen-scavenging system contained NPs, water, and iron(II) chloride. The oxygen content (%) decreased further to 19.5% when water was eliminated from the mixture. In this research, NPs and iron(II) chloride with thermal processing had an oxygen-scavenging capacity of 6.44 cm3 of O2/g and an oxygen-scavenging rate of 0.21 cm3 of O2 g(-1) day(-1). Results indicated that NPs and iron(II) chloride in an oxygen-scavenging system can be used as a heat-activated oxygen scavenger.

Application of the Stress-Energy Method for Generating Corrugated Board Cushion Curves

Cushion curves are an important tool used for designing foam cushions, but no commercially available curves exist for corrugated board, despite its growing popularity as a cushioning material. This paper summarizes the theory and recent work applying the stress-energy method and different curve fit models to corrugated board for generating cushion curves. This paper also compares stress-energy predicted deceleration values to actual ASTM D1596 deceleration values as a method of determining whether the stress-energy method is a viable alternative for generating cushion curves for corrugated board. The results of this study suggest that the stress-energy method should not yet be recommended for generating cushion curves for corrugated board.