Abstract
High-barrier and antibacterial materials have potential applications in the field of preservative packaging for fresh meat products. In this paper, UV irradiation and silane coupling agent (KH550) were used to modify the surface of SiOx coating on polyester (PET)/SiOx film to prepare the PET/SiOx/chitosan and PET/SiOx/chitosan-nano-ZnO composite film, respectively. The contact angle test revealed that KH550 improved the surface hydrophilicity of SiOx significantly compared to UV irradiation, and thus PET/SiOx/chitosan and PET/SiOx/chitosan-nano ZnO composite films were successfully prepared and their physical and chemical properties were characterized. SEM images showed that the surface of the composite film was a smooth and layered structure. The mechanical performance testing of the films has revealed that mechanical performance of the PET was improved by SiOx deposition while the coating (KH550, chitosan, and chitosan-nano ZnO) does not affect the mechanical performance of PET/SiOx. The oxygen resistance of PET/SiOx films treated with KH550 was enhanced with the addition of chitosan and chitosan-nano ZnO coating, but the moisture resistance was slightly decreased. Furthermore, PET/SiOx/chitosan and PET/SiOx/chitosan-nano ZnO composite films showed excellent growth inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The PET/SiOx/chitosan-nano-ZnO films had exhibited the strongest inhibition of bacteria.
Highlights
The current rapid development of e-commerce has resulted in a need for improvements in the requirements of the materials used to package fresh food (Cunha et al, 2020a, b)
The surface and cross-sectional morphology were observed through scanning electron microscope (S-4800, Hitachi Inc., Japan); the mechanical properties of the film were measured by electronic universal testing machine (SANS JTM4104, Shenzhen, China) referring to GB/T16421-996, and the final test result is the average of 6 samples; the water vapor permeability rate (WVT) of the film was determined by water vapor permeability tester (W-E-11A, Labthink Inc., China), and the oxygen permeability rate (OT) was determined by oxygen permeability tester (OX2/230, Labthink Inc., China)
Compared to UV irradiation, the KH550 treatment improves the hydrophilicity of the SiOx coating surface better and helps to enhance its adhesion to the chitosan solution
Summary
The current rapid development of e-commerce has resulted in a need for improvements in the requirements of the materials used to package fresh food (Cunha et al, 2020a, b). SiOx-based flexible packaging film has become a new trend among high barrier materials because of its environmental friendliness, excellent barrier property while not compromising the transparency of the base film It is generally formed by physical vapor deposition or chemical vapor deposition of SiOx on the surface of plastic films made using polyester (PET), polypropylene (PP) as substrate to obtain a high-barrier flexible composite film (PET/SiOx or PP/SiOx), known as soft glass (Baragetti et al, 2009; Qi et al, 2014). The effects of surface treatment, chitosan, and chitosan-nano ZnO coating solutions on the mechanical properties, barrier properties, and bacterial growth inhibition of PET/SiOx films were assessed. Received Aug., 2020 Accepted Sept., 2020 1School of Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan, China
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