Abstract
In this paper, chitosan (CS)/graphene oxide (GO) composite films were prepared, and the effect of γ-ray irradiation on the properties of composite films was investigated. The irradiation crosslinking reaction occurred in composite films with the existence of acetic acid, and the properties changed upon the various irradiation dose. The swelling degree of the composite film with 0 wt % GO decreased with the increasing of the irradiation dose, but the swelling degree of which with GO increased instead. The thermal stability increased with the increasing of the irradiation dose, but the effect of the irradiation on the thermal stability weakened as the increasing of the content of GO, due to the enhanced irradiation resistance performance. The tensile strength increased firstly and decreased subsequently with the increasing of the irradiation dose and the content of GO. Composite films showed the enhanced antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis, compared to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The antibacterial activity weakened with the increasing of the content of GO. The antibacterial activity was relatively stronger when the irradiation dose was 20 KGy. In addition, the structural, crystal, and morphological properties of composite films were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, and SEM. It is worth noting that the GO was pre-functionalized via KH560 for the better compatibility with CS matrix.
Highlights
Antibacterial active packaging, as an excellent packaging method, has gained wide attention [1].Antibacterial packaging means that an antibacterial substance is added into the packaging material or an antibacterial substance is used directly as the packaging material [2]
The CS/GO composite films were immersed into the acetic acid (1% w/w) aqueous solution
With the existence of acetic acid, γ-ray irradiation could induce to the occurrence of crosslinking reaction
Summary
Antibacterial active packaging, as an excellent packaging method, has gained wide attention [1]. Natural materials with antibacterial activities such as polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids have been proven to be promising for food packaging applications because of their environmentally friendly and biodegradable properties [6]. There have been many researches for the integration of nanofillers into CS based active packaging films, in order to improve the water resistance performance, irradiation resistance performance and mechanical properties [13,14]. GO possesses amounts of oxygen-containing functional groups (such as epoxy, hydroxyl, carbonyl, and carboxyl functional groups [15]) on basal plates and edges, which could be cross-linked by polymers containing amino groups [16] for improving the water resistance performance and mechanical properties of composite films [17].
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