Chitosan films reinforced with silica nanoparticles

DEBANDI M. VALERIA; BERNAL CELINA; FRANCOIS NORA

Buenos Aires

Conferencia; Comat 2015; 2015

ITPN

Recently there has been a great interest to study and develop films based on renewable natural polymers which can degrade naturally and faster than films obtained from synthetic polymers. Biopolymers are optimal to be used in food packaging and coatings but their films are usually brittle and need to possess specific mechanical, morphological and thermal properties for these applications. Chitosan has been selected because it is biodegradable, biocompatible, non-toxic, exhibits film-forming capacity and has bacteriostatic and fungistatic properties. In order to improve the properties of chitosan films, the use of silica nanoparticles (NPs) to prepare polymeric composite films has been explored. This work evaluates the differences in mechanical response and barrier properties between composite films made of chitosan-silica nanoparticles and neat chitosan films.