Preparation and characterization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) films coated by chitosan and vermiculite nanoclay

Fatima Essabti; Alain Guinault; Sébastien Roland; Gilles Régnier; Saïd Ettaqi; Matthieu Gervais

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.08.077

Preparation and characterization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) films coated by chitosan and vermiculite nanoclay

Carbohydr Polym. 2018 Dec 1:201:392-401. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.08.077. Epub 2018 Aug 23.

Authors

Fatima Essabti¹, Alain Guinault¹, Sébastien Roland¹, Gilles Régnier¹, Saïd Ettaqi², Matthieu Gervais³

Affiliations

¹ PIMM, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, CNRS, CNAM, 151 Bd de l'Hôpital, 75013 Paris, France.
² Laboratory Materials, Metallurgy and Process Engineering, ENSAM, Meknes, Morocco.
³ PIMM, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, CNRS, CNAM, 151 Bd de l'Hôpital, 75013 Paris, France. Electronic address: matthieu.gervais@lecnam.net.

PMID: 30241835
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.08.077

Abstract

Chitosan (CS) layers are coated on a poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film in order to decrease the oxygen permeability through the polymeric films for food packaging applications. Oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of the 130 μm PET films can be decreased from 11 to only 0.31 cm³/m².day with a coated layer of 2 μm of CS. Additional decrease is obtained with the addition of vermiculite (VMT) to CS matrix in high proportion (40 to 50 w/w%). The OTR of the coated PET films decreased to very low values, below the detection limit of commercial instrumentation (≤0.008 cm³/m² day). This high-barrier behavior is believed to be due to the brick wall nanostructure, which produces an extremely tortuous path for oxygen molecules.

Keywords: Barrier properties; Chitosan; Coating; Food packaging; Poly(ethylene terephthalate); Vermiculite.