In the past decade, polymer nanocomposites have emerged as a new class of materials and attracted considerable interest and investment in research and development worldwide. This is largely due to their new and often much improved mechanical,
thermal, electrical and optical properties as compared to their macro- and micro-counterparts. In general, polymer nanocomposites are made by dispersing inorganic or organic nanoparticles into either a thermoplastic or thermoset polymer.
Nanoparticles offer enormous advantages over traditional macro- or micro-particles (e.g., talc, glass, carbon fibers) due to their higher surface area and aspect ratio, improved adhesion between nanoparticle and polymer, and lower amount of loading to achieve equivalent properties [1]. Recently, considerable efforts have been made to extend the application of nanocomposites to
packaging industries. Nanocomposites represent a good candidate to produce food packaging because of their good barrier and mechanical properties [2- 5]. Indeed, the preservation of the desired qualities of the products, e.g. organoleptic properties in food
industries, depends on the ability for controlling gas, vapor and flavours’ transports through the packaging material [6].
In most researches concerning nanocomposites, the barrier properties are examined by using gas [7-10]. Such improvements in the gas barrier properties of nanocomposite materials are attributed to two separate phenomena resulting from the addition of the inorganic phase. Firstly, the inclusion of the inorganic phase results in modifications of the polymer chain flexibility and
in the arrangement of the polymeric matrix itself, which ultimately lowers the penetrate mobility in the nanocomposite and changes the solubility parameters. Moreover, the impermeable inorganic