Aleuritic Acid Polymer for Consistent Edible Coatings
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing polymers used as glazing agents or edible surface coatings, such as shellac, have variable composition and properties due to their natural origin, making it difficult to achieve consistent performance and composition.
Innovation Solution
Development of polymers comprising at least 50 mol-% aleuritic acid units with specific hydroxyl-value, acid-value, and glass transition temperature, allowing for controlled properties and higher molecular weight, crystallinity, and designed water vapor permeability through varying comonomer amounts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If natural shellac is used as a glazing agent or edible surface coating, then it provides film-forming properties and transparency, but the composition and properties vary widely depending on the source, making consistent performance difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a synthetic copy of shellac by polymerizing aleuritic acid, which is the major component of natural shellac. This synthetic polymer reproduces the essential film-forming properties and transparency of natural shellac while eliminating the composition variability inherent in natural products. The synthetic approach allows for consistent molecular weight, composition, and properties regardless of the source material.
2Stability of the object's composition
If shellac undergoes purification steps to achieve consistent properties, then composition uniformity improves, but the number of processing steps and complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential functional component (aleuritic acid) from the complex natural shellac system and uses it as the starting material for synthetic polymerization. By isolating and polymerizing this single component, the invention eliminates the need for multiple purification steps required to handle the complex mixture of aliphatic and alicyclic components present in natural shellac, thereby simplifying the overall process while achieving composition uniformity.
3Strength
If polymers with higher molecular weight are produced to improve physical properties, then film strength and crystallinity increase, but the difficulty of achieving controlled composition and properties increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs controlled polymerization conditions, including specific temperature ranges (180-220°C), controlled monomer-to-catalyst ratios, and regulated reaction times, to achieve consistent high molecular weights with narrow polydispersity. By precisely controlling these parameters, the invention produces polymers with predictable molecular weights (10,000-100,000 g/mol) and uniform compositions, thereby achieving both high film strength and manufacturing precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The resulting polymers provide consistent, hard, yet flexible, and transparent films with controlled properties, suitable for use as glazing agents or edible surface coatings, offering improved physical properties and reduced water vapor permeability.
Implementation Method 1
noncatalyzed melt-condensation polymerization of aleuritic acid
Implementation Method 2
melting temperature and glass transition temperature can be designed
Implementation Method 3
glass transition temperature Tg below - 9 °C
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a polymer comprising units based on aleuritic acid as monomer, wherein at least 50 mol-% of the units are based on aleuritic acid as monomer and that the polymer has a hydroxyl-value of from 200 to 400 mg KOH/g, an acid-value of from 10 to 60 mg KOH/g, and a glass transition temperature Tg below - 9 °C, to a process for preparing this polymer, and to the use of a polymer according to the invention or obtained by a process according to the invention as glazing agents or edible surface coatings.