Development of wheat gluten/nanocellulose/titanium dioxide
nanocomposites for active food packaging
abstract
Bionanocomposites were developed by casting/evaporation of wheat gluten (WG), cellulose nanocrystals
(CNC), and TiO2 nanoparticles. The effect of addition of different percentages of CNC, and TiO2 on tensile
strength (TS), Young’s modulus and water sensitivity was studied. A significant improvement in the
studiedproperties is observed when7.5%CNCand0.6%TiO2 is addedtoWG.WG/CNC7.5%/0.6%TiO2 blend
suspension was chosen to coat commercial packaging unbleached kraft paper sheets via 1, 2 and 3 coating
layers. A significant enhancement of 56% and 53% in breaking length and burst index, respectively, was
achieved for 3 layers coated paper. The antimicrobial activity of the coated papers, against Saccharomyces
cervisiae, Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, was
investigated and expressed in terms of reduction % of surviving number (CFU) of the tested organisms.
More than 98.5% reduction in CFU was observed against the organisms compared to TiO2-free coated
paper.