Sustainable Paper Coatings for PFAS Replacement - Starch and Cellulose-based PPC Coatings

In this study, different blends of modified starches were used as a paper coating in order to replace PFAS substances used on the surface of the papers in the food packaging industry. These blends are polysaccharide polyelectrolyte complexations (PPCs) and are composed of cationic starches and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and anionic starches and chitosan. Sample papers were coated with these blends using the draw-down coating method. It is found that these low-cost and sustainable materials are completely compatible with volume paper and paperboard manufacturing processes and can offer equivalent or better performance to PFAS coated substrates.