Chitosan-based bionanocomposite for packaging applications

Abstract

Concerns on environmental waste problems caused by non-biodegradable petrochemical-based plastic packaging materials as well as the consumers demand for high-quality food products have caused an increasing interest in developing biodegradable packaging materials like polysaccharides. Out of these polysaccharides, Chitosan has created its greater interest due to non-toxic, antibacterial behaviour, film-forming abilities and low permeability to oxygen, poor thermal and mechanical properties restricted its wide spread applications for packaging. However, reinforcement of various nanostructured materials shall increase the mechanical, thermal and gas barrier properties of chitosan without disturbing the biodegradable behaviour. This chapter summarizes different characterization techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of chitosan-based bionanocomposites. For keeping on the packaging applications of the materials, the important properties such as thermal and mechanical gas barrier and antimicrobial properties of chitosan-based bionanocomposites are discussed. The main focus of this chapter is to establish the packaging applications of chitosan-based bionanocomposites.