Effects of different crosslinking agents on properties of agar/sodium alginate composite films

Agar and sodium alginate are hydrophilic colloids extracted from algae, with good film-forming and biodegradability. In order to improve the application performance of agar/sodium alginate composite membrane, we used agar and sodium alginate as film-forming base material, glycerol as plasticizer, ferulic acid, tannin acid, citric acid and succinic acid as crosslinking agents to prepare the agar/sodium alginate composite films by solution casting method. Then we studied the effects of four crosslinking agents on the properties of the composite films based on the mechanical properties, water resistance, moisture resistance, opacity, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and microstructure of the composite films. The results show that the four crosslinking agents improved the tensile strength, water resistance and moisture resistance of the composite films significantly (P<0.05), but reduced the transparency significantly (P<0.05). The crosslinking agents had the best improvement effect on the composite films with additions of ferulic acid and tannin acid of 5%, citric acid and succinic acid of 10%. Among the four crosslinking agents, citric acid cross-linked film had the best performance, and when the addition of citric acid was 10%, each index reached the optimal value The tensile strength was 46.98 MPa; the elongation at break was 17.87%; the water solubility was 24.17%; the swelling ratio was 38%; the water vapor permeability (WVP) was 0.51 g·mm·(m²·h·kPa)⁻¹. FT-IR analysis shows that citric acid and succinic acid improved the properties of the composite films by esterifying with −OH of agar and sodium alginate, and ferulic acid or tannin acid achieved crosslinking by forming intermolecular hydrogen bonds with agar and sodium alginate. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis shows that agar and sodium alginate had good compatibility, and the cross section of composite film became denser and smoother with the addition of crosslinking agents. Therefore, moderate addition of crosslinking agent to agar/sodium alginate composite films can improve the physical and chemical properties of composite films at different degrees, which provides scientific references for the preparation and application of packaging films.