Food Sci. Biotechnol.
19(1): 243-247 (2010)
DOI 10.1007/s10068-010-0034-x
RESEARCH NOTE
Effect of Moisture Content on Tensile Properties of Paper-based Food
Packaging Materials
Jong-Whan Rhim
Received: 17 August 2009 / Revised: 8 October 2009 / Accepted: 20 October 2009 / Published Online: 28 February 2010
© KoSFoST and Springer 2010
Abstract Tensile properties (tensile strength and elongation or in contacting with high moisture foods, resulting in a
at break) of 3 selected paper-based packaging materials,
such as a vegetable parchment (VP) paper, a Kraft paper,
and a solid-bleached-sulfate (SBS) paperboard, were
determined with varying moisture contents. The monolayer
moisture content of the paper samples determined using the
Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer (GAB) model were 3.45,
3.01, and 3.18 g water/100 g solids for the VP paper, the
Kraft paper, and the SBS paperboard, respectively. Tensile
strength and flexibility of paper samples was greatly
influenced by the moisture content depending on the paper
materials and paper manufacturing directions. However,
the tensile properties of the paper samples maintained up to
the monolayer moisture content, which corresponds to the
water activity (Aw) of around 0.4 at 25oC.
Keywords: paper, packaging, isotherm, moisture content,
tensile property
Introduction
Among the 4 basic packaging materials of paper, plastics,
glass, and metals, paper is the most widely used packaging
materials for food and non-food products in the form of
bags, wrappings, cups, boxes, folding cartons, composite
cans, corrugated fiberboard boxes, and fiber drums used
for not only in primary packaging but also in secondary or
tertiary packaging (1,2). However, due to the highly porous
cellulose fibers of such paper-based packaging materials,
they readily absorb moisture in high humidity environment
Jong-Whan Rhim ( )
Department of Food Engineering, Mokpo National University, Muan,
Jeonnam 534-729, Korea
Tel: +82-61-450-2423; Fax: +82-61-454-1521
E-mail: jwrhim@mokpo.ac.kr
substantial degradation in mechanical properties such as
elastic moduli, yield stresses, and tensile strengths above
certain level of moisture content (3-6).
Therefore, it is important to understand how the
moisture content varies under different environmental
conditions such as relative humidity (RH) and temperature,
and how the resulting moisture content of the paper-based
packaging materials affects mechanical properties of them.
In general, paper is considered as an anisotropic material
since fibers are usually aligned in the direction of travel in
the papermaking machine, which is known as the machine
direction (MD). The direction across the papermaking
machine and across the fiber alignment is the cross-
machine direction (CD). Due to such directional variation
of paper materials, material properties such as tear strength,
stiffness, fold endurance, and tensile strength are significantly
different depending on the direction in which the property
is measured (1). Though moisture sorption-induced effects,
such as creep, hydroexpansion, tensile, burst, bending, and
compression strengths, on corrugated fiberboard boxes and
molded pulp containers have been performed, few works
on the moisture sorption and the resulting effects on the
mechanical strength of paper-based food packaging
materials have been reported (7-10). Even less works on
the effect of moisture content on the mechanical strength of
paper depending on the direction of paper manufacturing
have been published.
The main objective of this study was to determine the
effect of moisture content on the tensile properties in
both MD and CD directions of 3 selected paper-based
packaging materials such as a vegetable parchment (VP)
paper used for hamburger wrapping, a Kraft paper used for
linerboard of corrugated fiberboard box, and a solid-
bleached-sulfate (SBS) paperboard used for paper cup or
carton manufacturing.
244
Materials and Methods
Materials A vegetable parchment (VP) paper (basis
weight: 35 g/m2) used for hamburger wrapper was obtained
from Dong Yang Paper MFG Co., Ltd. (Asan, Korea), a
Kraft paper (basis weight: 180 g/m2) used for a liner of
corrugated fiberboard box was obtained from Kyungnam
Paper Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Yongin, Korea), and a
hard-sized solid-bleached-sulfate (SBS) paperboard (basis
weight: 165 g/m2), commonly used for the manufacturing
of paper cup or carton, was obtained from Daehan Pulp
(Seoul, Korea). Nine salts [LiCl, KC2H3O2, MgCl2, K2CO3,
Mg(NO3)2, KI, NaCl, KCl, and KNO3] of analytical
reagent grade were used for the preparation of saturated
salt solutions.
Adsorption isotherms The adsorption isotherms for the
selected paper samples were determined using the static
gravimetric method (11). Nine saturated salt solutions
[LiCl, KC2H3O2, MgCl2, K2CO3, Mg(NO3)2, KI, NaCl,
KCl, and KNO3] were used to maintain constant water
activities ranging from 0.11 to 0.96 at 25oC (11).
Three paper samples, a VP paper, a Kraft paper, and a
SBS paperboard, were cut into size of 5× 10 cm (about
0.180±0.001 g for the VP paper, 0.850±0.012 g for the
Kraft paper, and 0.800±0.004 g for the SBS paperboard,
respectively) using a paper cutter and dried in a vacuum
dryer at 60oC and 720 mmHg vacuum for 24 hr and kept
in a desiccators over calcium sulfate (DrieriteTM; W.A.
Hammond Drierite Co., Ltd., Xenia, OH, USA) before test.
The paper samples were placed in each of 9 hygrostats
(sealed glass bottle) at different constant water activity
established using the saturated salt solutions, and the
equilibrium moisture content was measured after 20 days
at the constant temperature (25oC). The moisture content of
each sample was based on the dry basis (g water/100 g dry
solid), which was determined after each adsorption
experiment using the oven drying method at 105oC for 24
hr drying. Weight of paper samples was determined using
a digital balance (MC1 Analytic 210S; Satorius AG,
Göttingen, Germany) with 0.1 mg accuracy.
The monolayer moisture contents of the paper samples
were determined using the Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer
(GAB) model as described by Bell and Labuza (11). The
GAB model contains 3 parameters as follows:
mo(CkAw)
m = --------------------------------------------------------------
(1 – kAw)(1 – kAw + CkAw)
- (1)
where m is the equilibrium moisture content (on dry weight
basis) at water activity, Aw; mo is the moisture content of
the monolayer corresponding to formation of a mono-
molecular layer on the internal surface of the paper
samples; C is the Guggenheim constant; and k is a factor
J. -W. Rhim
corresponding properties of the multilayer molecules with
respect to the bulk liquid. The parameters of the GAB
model were estimated by a non-linear regression method
employing the Marquardt-Levenberg algorithm using the
Solver function of Excel® (12). The goodness of the fitting
of the model to the experimental equilibrium moisture
content and water activity data was evaluated based on root
mean square error (ERMS) as follows (13):
ΣNi = 1(mobs – mpred)
12
1
(2)
⁄
ERMS = ---
N
where mobs and mpred are the observed moisture content at
any water activity and the corresponding predicted moisture
content according to the GAB model equation with the best
fitted parameters, respectively, and N is the number of
observations.
Conditioning of samples Tensile testing samples were
obtained by cutting paper samples into 2.54 × 15 cm
rectangular strips according to their directions using a
double blade sample cutter (model LB.02/A; Metrotec,
S.A., San Sebastian, Spain) and kept them at 25oC for 20
days in air-tight hygrostats saturated with the same salt
solutions used as determining the isotherms.
Tensile strength (TS) and percentage elongation at
break (E) TS and E of each paper sample were evaluated
with a Model 4465 Instron Universal Testing Machine
(Instron Engineering Corporation, Canton, MA, USA) in
accordance with the ASTM method (D882-97). Initial grip
separation was set at 50 mm and cross-head speed was set
at 50 mm/min. TS was calculated by dividing the maximum
load by the initial cross-sectional area of the paper. E was
calculated by dividing the extension at rupture of the
sample paper by the initial length of the sample (50 mm)
and multiplied by 100. Thickness of paper samples was
measured using a hand-held micrometer (Dial thickness
gauge No. 7301; Mitutoyo Co., Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan)
with 0.005 mm accuracy. The thickness was determined at
5 positions on sample along the length of the sample strip
and mean values were used. Twenty samples were used to
determine the TS and E of individual paper sample and
mean values were reported.
Results and Discussion
Adsorption isotherms Water vapor adsorption isotherms
for the paper samples were obtained by plotting the
equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of the paper samples
against Aw as shown in Fig. 1. The sorption isotherms of
the paper samples exhibited the typical sigmoid shape
curve which belongs to Type II isotherm as classified by
Tensile Properties of Paper Packaging Materials 245

the isotherm. Parker et al. (3) reported mo-values varied

between 3.8 and 6.5 g water/100 g solids for various paper-
based packaging materials such as paperboard, molded
pulp tray, and corrugated medium. Sørensen and Hoffmann
(5) also reported mo-value of 4.18 g water/100 g solids for
molded fiber trays at 25oC. This result indicates that the
paper samples used in the present study hold less moisture.
This could be due to the use of paper fibers of different
origin and the use of different processing methods for the
paper manufacturing.
Effect of moisture content on tensile properties
Generally, performance of paper-based packaging materials,
such as stacking compression strength, dimensional stability,
folding endurance, and tensile properties, are strongly
Fig. 1. Experimental and predicted (from the GAB model) affected by the moisture content of the packaging materials,
equilibrium moisture content (EMC) and water activity
relationship for o the selected paper packaging materials which is also directly influenced by the environmental
determined at 25 C. conditions (3-6, 14). The results on the effect of moisture
content on the tensile properties (TS and E) of the paper
samples depending on their fiber alignment directions are
Brunauer (11). Typically, 2 different regions for moisture shown in Fig. 2 and 3. Tensile properties (TS and E) of the
content in the isotherm curves were observed. They
indicate a slow moisture gain until the Aw goes around 0.7-
0.8, and then a rapid moisture gain at high Aw region. It is
also shown that the EMC of the paper samples ranged from
1.6 to 15.4 g water/100 g dry solid, in general, is lower
than other biopolymer or food materials (13-15). This is
probably characteristics of surface adsorption of water
vapor by cellulose-based materials, which is crystalline in
nature (14). Similar patterns of isotherms have been
reported for paper pulp and paperboard (3), molded fiber
trays (5), and paper sheets (15).
The results of direct non-linear regression analysis of
fitting the GAB model to the experimental data are shown
in Table 1. Low ERMS values (0.0145-0.0232) indicate that
the GAB model is fitted well to the experimental isotherms
data. Generally, a good fit of an isotherm is assumed when
the ERMS-value is less than 0.05 (13). The monolayer
moisture content (mo) of the paper samples were in the
range of 3-3.5 g water/100 g solids with the highest for the
VP paper followed by the SBS paperboard and the Kraft
paper, respectively. The mo-values of the paper samples
correspond to the Aw of 0.3-0.4, which can be read from

Table 1. The GAB model constants (mo, k, C) of the different

paper packaging materials
GAB constants
Paper ERMS
mo k
1)
C
VP paper 3.45 0.84 6.42 0.0232
Kraft paper 3.01 0.87 9.85 0.0148 Fig. 2. Tensile strength (TS) of the selected paper packaging
SBS paperboard 3.18 0.85 8.18 0.0145 materials at various moisture contents (MC) depending on the
1)
unit: g water/100 g solids direction of paper manufacturing.
246
Fig. 3. Elongation at break (E) of the selected paper packaging
materials at various moisture contents (MC) depending on the
direction of paper manufacturing.
paper samples were varied depending not only on the type
of paper materials and their moisture contents, but also on
the fiber alignment directions as well.
The TS indicates the ability of paper samples to resist
breaking under tension, while the E indicates the flexibility
of the paper materials. They are dependent on the strength
of fibers, their surface area and fiber length, and the
bonding strength between them. The VP paper was the
strongest (i.e., the highest TS) followed by the SBS
paperboard and the Kraft paper in the MC direction, but the
SBS paperboard was the strongest followed by the VP
paper and the Kraft paper in the CD direction. The
difference in TS among the papers is mainly due to the
difference in the strength between cellulose fibers composed
of paper structure and their post-processing treatments
(1,2). Kraft paper, one of the most widely used paper for
packaging, is made from softwoods by the sulfate process.
It is sometimes made with recycled paper which results in
a decrease in paper strength. SBS is a strong premium
paperboard composed of 100% bleached sulfate pulps and
highly sized, which is often called ‘food board’ and used
J. -W. Rhim
for wet foods, freezer boxes, and other applications where
good performance under wet conditions is important (1).
Vegetable parchment paper is produced by passing a web
of high-quality, unsized chemical pulp through a bath of
concentrated sulfuric acid followed by washing in water
and drying resulting in excellent wet strength with good
grease and oil resistant properties (2).
As expected, the TS of all paper samples decreased with
increase in the moisture content in both MD and CD
directions. However, the influence of the moisture content
was more profound in the CD direction. The decrease in
TS by the presence of moisture of paper-based packaging
materials is mainly due to the development of hydrogen
bonds between hydrophilic hydroxyl groups of cellulose
fiber in the paper matrix and water molecules replacing the
fiber-fiber interaction and consequently reducing the
intermolecular interaction between fibers. Further sorption
of water vapor may induce swelling and conformational
change of the macromolecular structure of the paper and
result in decreased mechanical strength. Such phenomena
of decrease in mechanical strength with increase in moisture
content have been frequently observed in a various paper-
based packaging materials. For example, Bandyopadhyay
et al. (4) showed that mechanical properties such as elastic
moduli, yield stress, and tensile strength of papers are
generally decreased when they are exposed to high humidity
conditions. Sørensen and Hoffmann (5) also reported that
static compression strength of molded paper tray was
substantially affected by changes in moisture content of
molded fiber and decreased exponentially with increasing
moisture content.
Flexibility of the paper samples determined by E was
also influenced by both the moisture content and the fiber
alignment direction. Though it is not so clear in MD
direction, the SBS paperboard was the most flexible (i.e.,
the highest E) followed by the Kraft paper and the VP
paper in CD direction in the whole range of moisture
content. Generally, the E of the paper samples increased
with increased in the moisture content in both MD and CD
directions. As expected, the effect of moisture on E of the
paper samples was more evident in CD direction than MD
direction. Such behavior of paper-based packaging materials
may be caused by the difference in cellulose fibers of the
individual paper packaging material and wet strength
agents used for the paper making and post-processing
methods such as sizing and glazing. This property of
paper-based packaging materials is directly related to the
performance of the packaging materials such as resiliency,
folding endurance, and dimensional stability.
Though strength (TS) of the paper samples decreased
while flexibility (E) of the paper samples increased as the
moisture content of the paper samples increased, they
maintained the strength or flexibility up to the moisture
Tensile Properties of Paper Packaging Materials
content of 3-4 g water/100 g dry solids, which corresponds
to the Aw of 0.4 at 25oC. This means these paper-based
packaging materials should be kept at such low level of Aw
to maintain their desirable performance.
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