Improvement of Mechanical Properties and Water Absorption in Wheat Gluten by Epoxidized Natural Rubber

摘要

TThe aims of this research work were to improve touhgness and water resistance of wheat gluten (WG) by epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) compared to glycerol. WG specimens were mixed and prepared by internal mixer and compression molding machine, respectively. ENR and glycerol were varied from 10 to 40 wt%. Effects of modifier types and contents on WG were evaluated by tensile, impact and water absorption testings and microstructure and thermal analyses. The increase of ENR or glycerol contents led to the increase of toughness by considering the increase of impact strength and elongation at break. Glass transition temperature of WG tended to decrease with the increase of ENR or glycerol contents, especially for glycerol. The presence of glycerol affected to the decomposition temperature values whereas ENR did not affect to decomposition. ENR improved water resistant of WG specimen but trend of glycerol showed the opposite behavior. Weight loss of modified WG with glycerol was found at immersion time of 1440 min.