Enhancement of Chitosan Film Characteristics with Nanoparticles

Food packaging is mainly made from plastics. New techniques, such as biodegradable films or coatings were used to meet the environmental concerns and consumer demands for natural products. This research aimed to investigate the effect of adding zinc oxide and selenium nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs and Se-NPs) to chitosan films on its characteristics. The chitosan films incorporated with ZnO-NPs and Se-NPs were prepared to contain ZnO-NPs and Se-NPs as follows: Ch/3%ZnO-NPs and Ch/1%Se-NPs. The results revealed that the incorporation of ZnO and Se-NPs in chitosan films had significantly decreased thickness (from 0.149 µm to 0. 124µm), Transparency (from0.77% to 0.53%) solubility (from 24.38% to 18.64%) and water vapor permeability (from 40.37 g/m2h to 37.02 g/m2h m) whereas tensile strength and elongation were increased from 33.50 N to 63.71N and from 20.95% to 28.18%, respectively. In general, the chitosan films incorporated with ZnO-NP and Se-NPs will have an important role in food-active packaging.