Nanocomposite polymer films based on modified banana epidermis starch for food packaging applications

Abstract

The objective of the present research is to prepare and characterize the nanocomposite polymer films based on modified banana epidermis starch with chitosan, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and ZnO NPs for food packaging applications. The films were prepared using polymers such as LDPE, polypropylene (PP), and chitosan with MBES. The prepared films were analyzed with different testing methods and to find suitable applications in food packaging. The LDPE and MBES films were prepared using LDPE with MBES. FTIR, SEM, TGA, XRD techniques were used to characterize their functional interactions, surface morphology, thermal stability, and structural pattern of the prepared films. The surface morphological behavior of the prepared films was studied by SEM. The XRD results were used to investigate the structural pattern of the film samples. The films were tested for their mechanical properties namely tensile strength and elongation at break.The results of TGA infers the thermal stability of the prepared films. The barrier properties of the prepared films were tested. The antibacterial activities of prepared films were tested against E. coli and S. aureus. The PP and MBES based films were prepared using polypropylene (PP) with modified banana epidermis starch (MBES). XRD, TGA, SEM, and FTIR techniques were used to characterize their structural pattern, thermal stability, surface morphology, and functional interactions. The XRD results were used to investigate the structural pattern of the prepared film samples and the morphological behavior of the prepared films was observed by SEM images. The prepared films were tested for their mechanical properties like newlinetensile strength, and elongation at break. The results of the TGA infers the thermal stability of the prepared films. The barrier properties of the prepared films were tested. The antibacterial activities of the prepared films were tested against E. coli and S. aureus. newline newline