Water sorption, antimicrobial activity, and thermal and mechanical properties of chitosan/clay/glycerol nanocomposite films

Abstract

Chitosan-based nanocomposites films with different clay loadings (0, 5, 10, 15 wt %), with (10, 20, 30 wt%) and without glycerol as plasticizer, were prepared by solution casting. The effects of the addition of clay and glycerol on the thermal, mechanical, water absorption, and antimicrobial activity properties of chitosan/clay nanocomposites films were investigated in this study. XRD results indicated that the intercalated structure was obtained in the chitosan/clay nanocomposites with and without glycerol. The thermal stability of the chitosan was significantly enhanced by the presence of clay and glycerol. It was found that the addition of clay into the chitosan improved significantly the tensile strength and tensile modulus. The highest values in strength and stiffness were achieved for the chitosal/clay nanocomposites with 5 wt% of clay and 20 wt% of glycerol. The addition of both clay and glycerol reduced drastically the ductility of chitosan. The best water resistance was obtained for the chitosan film containing 5 wt% of clay and 20 wt% of glycerol. The chitosan/clay nanocomposite film had potential for application of alternative food packing materials.

Fabrication and Characterization of Chitosan/Cellulose Nanocrystal/Glycerol Bio-Composite Films

“…The reduction in water absorption of the bio-composite films with the presence of glycerol was also supported by the FT-IR spectrum, which exhibited a low intensity of the hydrophilic functional group band at 3500–3200 cm −1 (representing O–H stretching) [ 41 ]. Other researchers have also observed similar findings, i.e., that the water absorption of chitosan bio-composite films decreases in the presence of glycerol [ 10 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ].…”

“…To overcome the main drawbacks of chitosan, several suggestions have been made to improve its properties such as by the incorporation of nanofillers, plasticizers, and/or cross-linking agents. Numerous studies on chitosan films have been investigated by previous researchers using different nanofillers such as cellulose nanocrystal [ 8 , 9 ], nano clay [ 10 ], starch palm cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) [ 11 ], and carbon nanotubes [ 12 ].…”

Influence of the Mechanical Environment on the Regeneration of Osteochondral Defects

“…Chitosan hydrogels have been shown to support the proliferation of chondrocytes and MSCs in vitro and to improve the deposition of cartilaginous ECM both in vitro and in vivo (Griffon et al, 2006 ; Elder et al, 2013 ; Faikrua et al, 2013 ; Sheehy et al, 2015 ; Huang et al, 2019 ; Scalzone et al, 2019 ). However, since chitosan display poor mechanical properties, crosslinking or combination with other materials is required to optimise the elastic modulus for osteochondral TE (Muzzarelli et al, 2015 ; De Mori et al, 2019 ; Kusmono and Abdurrahim, 2019 ; Scalzone et al, 2019 ). Thomas et al ( 2017 ) tuned the stiffness of chitosan-hydrogels by blending increasing concentrations of hyaluronic acid dialdehyde and the degree of crosslinking to obtain hydrogels with a Young's modulus of 0.13 MPa and 0.199 MPa.…”

Effect of the preparation method on the properties of nanocomposites based on chitosan, montmorillonite and essential oils

“…Other way to reduce water vapor permeability is the addition of layered silicates nanoparticles (e.g. sodium montmorillonite) to improve the end-use properties such as barrier and mechanical properties (Abdurrahim, 2019). Usually, the silicate layers in MMT are organized into stacks kept together by van der Waals forces.…”