Effect of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles on Glycerol-Plasticized Anionic and Cationic Polysaccharide Edible Films

Concetta Giosafatto,Mohammed Sabbah,Raffaele Porta,Asmaa Al-Asmar,Loredana Mariniello,Prospero Di Pierro,Marcella Cammarota,Alfredo Sanchez,Marilena Esposito,Reynaldo Villalonga Santana

doi:10.3390/coatings9030172

Abstract

This study describes the production of reinforced polysaccharide (PS)-based films, by adding mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), to either pectin (PEC) or chitosan (CH) film forming solutions, either containing glycerol (GLY) as a plasticizer, or not. Film characterization demonstrated that MSNs and GLY were able to significantly increase the plasticity of both PS-based biomaterials and that the interactions between PSs and nanoparticles were mainly due to hydrogen bonds. Moreover, MSN-containing films were less transparent, compared to controls prepared with either PEC or CH, in the absence of GLY, while all films containing MSNs, but obtained with the plasticizer, were as transparent as the films prepared with PEC or CH alone. MSN addition did not influence the thickness of the PEC-based films, but increased that of CH-based ones, prepared both in the absence and presence of GLY. MSN-containing PEC-based films possessed a more compact and homogeneous morphology, with respect to both control films, prepared, with or without GLY, and to the CH-based films, containing MSNs, the structure of which showed numerous agglomerations. Finally, moisture content and uptake were reduced, in all films prepared in the presence of MSNs. The suggested addition of MSNs might have given rise to novel biomaterials for food or pharmaceutical applications.

Highlights

In the last decades, there has been a worldwide demand for replacing the highly pollutant oil-based plastics, by renewable and biodegradable materials
GLY was obtained from the Merck Chemical Company (Darmstadt, Germany)
All other chemicals and solvents were of analytical grade

Summary

Introduction

There has been a worldwide demand for replacing the highly pollutant oil-based plastics, by renewable and biodegradable materials. There has been an increased interest in the development and application of biodegradable/edible films and coatings in the food industry, as a consequence of the increasing consumer demand for safe and stable functional foods, with a low environmental impact [1]. Films based on natural polymers are widely known to exhibit poor mechanical resistance, as well as limited barrier and thermal properties. These biomaterials had so far restricted commercial applicability in the food packaging sector. Much attention has been given to the production of biopolymer composites, where at least one of their components has nanometric dimensions (1–100 nm) [7]

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