Cross-Linking Process of Biodegradable Wheat Gluten Sheet

Vital wheat gluten as agropolymer was preformed into disks via compression molding, the crosslinking process of the disks was investigated by rotorless curemeter, and the disulfide bonds intensity of crosslinking disks was characterized by Raman spectroscopy. According to rubber vulcanization mechanism, the influence of molding temperature, disk thickness and vulcanization temperature on the crosslinking process of wheat gluten was studied. The results showed that disk thickness and molding temperature had very weak effect on reaction rate; and that activation energy of the crosslinking increased with increasing temperature of preforming. With increasing vulcanization temperature of wheat gluten, the rate constant of the crosslinking increased, whereas plateau of vulcanizing curves shortened.