XT2i (SMS, Surrey, England). The tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (E) were obtained according to the ASTM D882-95 method ( ASTM, 1995). Films were cut into strips with a width of 0.6 cm and a length of 10 cm. The initial grip spacing and cross-head speed were 8 cm and 1.0 mm/s, respectively. The tensile strength (TS) was calculated as the maximum force at break divided by the initial cross-sectional area (thickness of film × 0.6 cm) of the initial film. Elongation at break BAY 73-4506 supplier (E) was calculated as the percentile

of the change in the length of the specimen with respect to the original distance between the grips (8 cm). Young’s modulus (YM) was calculated from the initial slope of the stress–strain curve using Texture Expert version 1.22 (SMS). The solubility in water was computed as the percentage of dry matter of the solubilized film after immersion in water at 25 ± 2 °C for 24 h (Gontard, Guilbert, & Cuq, 1992). Film discs (diameter = 2 cm) were cut, weighed, immersed in 50 mL of distilled water, and slowly and periodically agitated. The moisture content of the films was determined gravimetrically by placing the samples in an oven at 105 °C for 24 h. The water

vapor permeability (WVP) test was conducted by using a modified ASTM E96-95 (ASTM, 1995) method at selleck kinase inhibitor 25 ± 2 °C. Film samples were sealed over the circular opening of a permeation cell containing silica gel. The cells were then placed in desiccators containing distilled water. The weight gain of the cells was monitored every 24 h, for 7 days. Initially, the film samples were placed in chambers containing silica gel, which allowed for determination of the water vapor

absorption isotherms. Film specimens (approximately 500 mg), in triplicate, were placed in hermetic chambers containing oversaturated salt solutions of LiCl (aw 0.111), MgCl2·6H2O (aw 0.328), K2CO3 (aw 0.432), NaBr (aw 0.577), NaNO2 (aw 0.642), NaCl (aw 0.757), Diflunisal KCl (aw 0.843), and BaCl2 (aw 0.904) at 25 ± 2 °C for 3 weeks, which was the time period required for equilibrium to be reached. The equilibrium moisture content was determined by drying the samples to constant weight in a vacuum oven at 70 °C. The Guggenheim–Anderson–De Boer (GAB) model was used to represent the experimental equilibrium data. The GAB model follows the formula ( Bizot, 1984) equation(1) M=mo·C·K·aw(1−K·aw)·(1−K·aw+C·K·aw),where M is the equilibrium moisture content (g water/g db) at a water activity (aw), mo is the monolayer value (g water/g db), and C and K are the GAB constants. The surface response methodology was employed for evaluation of the effect of the drying temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) on the mechanical properties, solubility, water vapor permeability, moisture content, and drying time of the films.