White Ginger Nanocellulose as Effective Reinforcement and Antimicrobial Polyvinyl Alcohol/ZnO Hybrid Biocomposite Films Additive for Food Packaging Applications

Abstract

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has been used in packaging applications due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. However, this non-toxic synthetic material belonging to a highly hydrophilic polymer has poor resistance to wet environments, no antibacterial activity, and low tensile and thermal properties. This study aims to prepare and characterize a PVA-based biocomposite film mixed with antimicrobial white ginger nanocellulose (GCNF) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles. The film was processed using GCNF (0.1 g) or/and ZnO nanoparticles (0.5 g). The results confirm that the GCNF/ZnO/PVA-based film presents the strongest antimicrobial activity and the highest thermal resistance. This film also had the best value in tensile strength (19.7 MPa) and modulus (253.1 MPa); 63.9% and 117.9%, respectively higher than purce PVA. Its elongation at break was 56.6%, not statistically significantly different from the pure PVA film. Thus, this PVA-based hybrid biocomposite film reinforced by GCNF and ZnO has excellent potential for fresh food packaging in industrial applications.