Carrageenan Fibers Preparation And Properties

Carrageenan is a natural polysaccharide extracted from red algae.It has a good property in water-soluble that it starts to dissolve into water at 70℃and will completely dissolved in-to water at 80℃.Carrageenan powder is stable and it can be stored in a long term. Carragee-nan powder is also stable in neutral and alk- aline solution, even if heated it is not hydrolyze-ed.Carrageenan with gel, thickening, emulsifying, film forming, stable dispersion, non-tox-ic, has been widely used in dairy products, ice cream, fruit juice, bread, jelly, meat, spices, medicine and so on.The properties of carrageenan are unique that it can not be replaced by other resins, which makes the carrageenan industry developed rapidly. And the annual prod-uction of carrageenan has far exceeded the production of agar worldwide now. This thesis e-xplores new applications of carrageenan by preparing carrageenan fibers, and the performan-ce of fibers was studied.The conditions of wet spinning, by which carrageenan fibers were prepared, were studied. T-he optimal concentration range, suitable temperature and coagulation bath were determined. An ideal wet spinning conditions of preparing carrageenan fibers was found. The performan- ce of the prepared fibers was analyzed. The results showed that carrageenan fibers have good tensile properties.The blend films of carrageenan and sodium alginate, PVA were prepared, and the perfo-rmance of the blend films was analyzed. The results showed that carrageenan and sodium al-ginate mixed uneven, but the carrageenan mixed evenly with PVA. The blend fibers were pr-epared by wet spinning, and the performance of the blend fibers were analyzed. The results sh- owed that the elongation of carrageenan - sodium alginate blend fiber is relatively large, and the surface of blend fiber is rough; but the surface of carrageenan-PVA blend fiber is smooth, and the strength of fibers decreases slightly.