Zero-valent metal incorporated cellulose acetate oxygen scavenging system for packaging of liquid food

Abstract

Preserving packaged food from oxidative degradation is essential to improve the food quality and shelf life. This work focuses on synthesizing inexpensive zero-valent metal-incorporated polymeric films with a high oxygen scavenging rate, thus decreasing dissolved oxygen and bacterial growth. The optimal solvent for film synthesis was determined, with CADMSO films demonstrating the highest scavenging rate of 0.028 day−1. Next, zero-valent Fe, Cu, and Al nanoparticles were synthesized and incorporated into cellulose acetate films for use in active packaging. The resulting ZFe films showed the highest scavenging rate of 0.994 day−1 followed by ZCu and ZAl films with rates of 0.604 day−1, and 0.3516 day−1, respectively. Both ZFe and ZCu films exhibited potent antibacterial effects against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria after 24 h, with reductions exceeding 99%. ZAl films showed a 99% reduction in bacterial colonies for gram-positive and a 97.5% reduction for gram-negative after 24 h. When tested with fruit juice, ZFe films exhibited the greatest scavenging capacity, achieving a 100% reduction in dissolved oxygen within 5 days. The films exhibited stability, as observed from FTIR and TGA analysis. The films' potent oxygen scavenging and bactericidal properties suggest that they may have applications as packaging agents.