Nanofibrillated cellulose as coating agent for food packaging paper

Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), a promising bio-based nanomaterial, has received much attention in the field of coating preparation due to its unique properties. Herein, NFC was prepared from microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) via high-pressure homogenization process and deliberately employed as coating agent to enhance the properties of paper coatings and coated paper. The results demonstrated that the obtained paper coatings exhibited strong NFC concentration dependence on rheological behavior and displayed decreased water retention value with the increased NFC addition. Meanwhile, NFC addition was found to lead to the reduced Cobb value, improved air resistance, and enhanced tensile strength of coated paper. Under an optimized NFC addition of 0.30–0.40%, the properties of coated paper generally reached the optimum state. Moreover, SEM observation further confirmed that NFC addition imparted a relatively uniform surface structure to coated paper. Hence, NFC could be defined as an effective coating agent for developing high-performance coated paper for food packaging applications.