Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXIV, Issue 2
Written by Georgia OLARU, Maria RAPA, Mona Elena POPA
Biopolymers are polymers obtained from biological origins and used for industrial applications in food packaging. A biopolymer should be non-toxic, non-carcinogenic, biodegradable and also adequately available for their widespread applications. The aim of this study was to obtain packaging materials for food, as films prepared in the laboratory, based on natural polymers obtained from renewable resources: - chitosan/gelatine and chitosan/gelatine/n-clay respectively; - chitosan/pectin and chitosan/pectin/n-clay respectively; - chitosan/gelatine/pectin and chitosan/gelatine/pectin/n-clay respectively. The nano-clay was added 3% to the mixing mass. In order to obtain films with a good flexibility, 5% glycerol was added. These polymeric films have been characterized in terms of transmittance/transmission by UV/VIS spectroscopy and chemical structure by ATR-FTIR technique. It was found that the optical properties of these films were slightly affected by the nano-clay concentration in their composition. As for the films based on chitosan - gelatine, chitosan-pectin, which contain nano-clay, this has increased the thickness of the films, giving them mechanical strength, but also opacity. Analysis of the film microstructure obtained by FTIR exhibited a good compatibility among the gelatine-chitosan blend and showed that this matrix allowed a uniform distribution of the actives throughout the network. The results obtained from the ATR-FTIR spectra confirmed the existence of specific chemical groups in the analysed polymers (-OH, -NH2, -NH, CH2, CH- groups), according to the data reported in the literature.
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