EFFECT OF SOME ACTIVE COMPOUNDS ON MICROSTRUCTURE AND THERMAL PROPERTIES OF STARCH-CHITOSAN BLEND FILMS

BOF, M.J.; LOCASO, D.E.; GARCIA, M.A.; JIMÉNEZ, A.; CHIRALT, A.

Donostia

Conferencia; 5th International Conference on Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers. (BIOPOL 2015); 2015

Traditionally films and coatings derived from petroleum have been widely used in the pharmaceutical and food industry. Nowadays, there is an increasing trend and an emerging technology to replace them by biodegradable materials that could act as carriers of active compounds such as antimicrobials and/or antioxidants. In this sense, some natural and synthetic polymers have been studied for this purpose. Among natural polymers available to produce films, starch is one of the most commonly used materials due to its low cost, renewability and good film forming capacity [1]. However, corn starch films are a poor water vapour barrier and exhibit poor mechanical properties. In order to improve these characteristics, a blend with chitosan is promising [2]. Chitosan is a natural polymer obtained as by-product from the fishing industry. This polymer is extracted from crab shells and it is obtained by deacetilation of chitin. It has good film forming capacity and its particular interest is due to its antimicrobial activity attributed to its -NH2 groups present in the molecular structure. Some natural compounds such as grapefruit seed extract (GSE) and lemon essential oil (LEO) can be added to polymer?s matrix to improve its antimicrobial/antioxidant activity. However, additives incorporation may affect physical properties of the materials, which are closely related with their microstructure. Thus, the aim of this work was to study the effect of LEO and GSE addition on the microstructure and thermal properties of starch-chitosan blend films.