Green Synthesis and Characterization of Polymyrcene as an Oxygen Scavenging Sustainable Polymer for Active Food Packaging Applications

Food scarcity and safety are the utmost considerable issues of the modern world and need to be addressed with environmentally benign approaches. Green and sustainable synthesis of polymyrcene from β-myrcene via emulsion polymerization and its applicability as an oxygen scavenging material have been studied. The synthesized polymer was activated by using ultraviolet (UV) light in order to trigger the oxygen scavenging mechanism. The synthesized polymer was characterized for its molecular weight by chromatography, thermal study, and structural changes by infrared spectroscopy. The z-average diameter of polymer particles is distributed in the range of 77.9–105.5 nm, which gives a better surface area for scavenging. The developed polymyrcene–photocatalytic system has exhibited an oxygen scavenging capacity of 1077 mL O₂/g in 20 days at 25 °C. Similar values were obtained within 4 days when exposed to 45 °C. The reaction rate kinetics were analyzed by using collision theory, and the activation energy involved was estimated. The results proved that polymyrcene could be efficiently utilized as an oxygen absorber in active food packaging.