Tailoring Multi-Level Structural and Practical Features of Gelatin Films by Varying Konjac Glucomannan Content and Drying Temperature

Here, we tailored the multi-level structural and practical (mechanical/hydrophilic) features of gelatin films by varying the konjac glucomannan (KGM) content and the film-forming temperatures (25 and 40 °C). The addition of KGM apparently improved the mechanical properties and properly increased the hydrophilicity. With the lower temperature (25 °C), the increase in KGM reduced the gelatin crystallites of films, with detectable KGM–gelatin interactions, nanostructures, and micron-scale cracks. These structural features, with increased KGM and negligibly-occurred derivatizations, caused initially an insignificant decrease and then an increase in the strength, with a generally-increased elongation. The higher temperature (40 °C) could reduce the strength and slightly increase the elongation, related to the reduced crystallites of especially gelatin. With this higher temperature, the increase in KGM concurrently increased the strength and the elongation, mainly associated with the increased KGM and crystallites. Additionally, the increase in KGM made the film more hydrophilic; the multi-scale structural changes of films did not dominantly affect the changing trend of hydrophilicity.