Development of chitin nanofibers for smart packaging applications

Due to undeniable advantages, the consumption of single-use plastic bags has increased tremendously since the last decade, resulting in a plenty of the plastic wastes in landfills and environment. This has led to serious environmental and animal life issues. Biodegradable packaging films could be a promising candidate to decrease amounts of the consumption of the petroleum-based plastic bags; however, mechanical and barrier properties of the biodegradable packaging are inferior to those of the petroleum-based plastic films. To enhance features of the biodegradable packaging, biodegradable reinforcement which is derived from nature should be applied to save the biodegradability feature of the films.

Here, shrimp shells from seafood industries are selected as a main chitin resource to prepare chitin nanofibers with diameters of 10 nm and lengths up to several µm using chemical and mechanical treatments. The prepared chitin nanofibers will be mixed with a biodegradable polymer, and effects of concentrations of the chitin nanofibers on mechanical and antibacterial properties of these packaging films will be investigated. Moreover, the nanocomposite films would be cross-linked, and effects of the wet condition on properties of the cross-linked chitin nanofiber reinforced polymer films will be investigated to understand the film limitation. The obtained materials will be used as active green packaging to extend the shelf life of food products, and findings from this work will be useful for laying a foundation on the improvement of barrier and antibacterial properties of the biodegradable films. The technology could be transferred to the packaging and paper industries to apply these nanofibers to prepare substitute packaging films which could shed light on the reduction in a number of the nonbiodegradable plastic wastes.