Wheat gluten: from an agro-industrial co-product to bio-based, disposable, high-performance materials.

Wheat gluten proteins form a visco-elastic mass upon hydration, which make wheat flours suitable for the production of bread and pasta. As a co-product of the wheat starch industry, gluten is available in large amounts at relatively low cost. This, together with its intrinsic properties, makes gluten an ideal candidate for conversion intor renewable, bio-based, disposable, high-performance materials. However, in terms of thermo-mechanical properties current gluten materials are outperformed by all of the available synthetic polymer materials, commodity plastics meet the mechanical properties typical of high impact polystyrene. Besides a thorough investigation on the influence of the individual gluten components on the material properties, approaches will be used that already proved their value in optimizing synthetic polymers. Gluten-based composites with natural fibers will be designed to further increase the stiffness and strength.

Keywords:Composites, Biopolymers, Hyperbranched polymers, Processing, Mechanical properties, Renewable resources, Bio-based materials, Wheat gluten

Disciplines:Macromolecular and materials chemistry, Composites and hybrid materials, Process engineering, Polymeric materials, Food sciences and (bio)technology