Abstract
This study aimed to develop a sodium alginate (50%NaAlg)/polyethylene oxide (50%PEO) blend-based film loaded with nickel and zinc oxide nanoparticles (Ni/ZnO NPs) as a rein-forcing and antibacterial agent. The Ni/ZnO NPs as nanohybrid were synthesized via the sol-gel method at different concentrations (0.0, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0, 20.0 wt.%). The solution cast approach was utilized to create polymer nanocomposites samples from NaAlg/PEO/Ni/ZnO NPs for application in bioactive food packaging. The films were characterized using various procedures in detail. With the addition of Ni/ZnO, the XRD confirms the expansion of amorphous nature within NaAlg/PEO. The crystallinity degree of NaAlg/PEO-Ni/ZnO nanocomposite were decreased from 47 to 25%. The interactions between the compo-nents of NaAlg/PEO and Ni/ZnO NPs are revealed by FTIR findings. The bio-degradable nanocomposites dielectric behavior, electrical conductivity as well as mechanical prop-erties, were investigated. With the addition of Ni/ZnO NPs, the dielectric and AC conduc-tivity properties of the nanocomposites improved with the increase in the concentrations of Ni/ZnO NPs. The loading of Ni/ZnO nanoparticles increased the mechanical character-istics of the nanocomposite, such as tensile strength increased from 30.18 to 72.34, stiff-ness increased from 18.78 to 38.42, and Youngs Modulus increased from 8.24 to 29.76. The antibacterial activity of nanocomposites films was examined against Gram-negative (Escherichia coli), Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus), Aspergillus niger (fungus) and Candida albicans (yeast). Though the tested NaAlg/PEO blend did not indicate any activity against the microbial strains, when Ni/ZnO NPs were added, activity against E. coli, S. aureus, fungus and yeast was enhanced. The water solubility of nanocomposites films reduced from 65.5% to 9.81% with increasing of Ni/ZnO NPs content. The present study shown that NaAlg/PEO-Ni/ZnO films were more effective in inhibiting bacteria growth than pure NaAlg/PEO film, confirming the nanocomposites films potential application as anti-microbial food packaging.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).