TY  - EJOU
AU  - Pankaj, S.K. 
AU  - Bueno-Ferrer, C. 
AU  - Misra, N.N. 
AU  - O’Neill, L. 
AU  - Jiménez, A. 
AU  - Bourke, P. 
AU  - Cullen, P.J. 

TI  - Surface, Thermal and Antimicrobial Release Properties of  Plasma-Treated Zein Films
T2  - Journal of Renewable Materials

PY  - 2014
VL  - 2
IS  - 1
SN  - 2164-6341

AB  - The effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma treatment on zein fi lm containing thymol as an active 
ingredient were evaluated. The plasma discharge was optically characterized to identify the reactive species. 
A signifi cant increase in the fi lm roughness (p < 0.05) was observed due to the etching effect of DBD plasma, 
which was correlated with the increase in the diffusion rate of thymol in the food simulant. The diffusion of 
thymol from the zein fi lm was measured in aqueous solution. The kinetics of thymol release followed the 
Fick’s law of diffusion as shown by the high correlation coeffi cients between experimental and theoretical 
data. No signifi cant change (p > 0.05) was observed for the thermal properties of the antimicrobial fi lms after 
DBD plasma treatment.
KW  - Non-thermal plasma
KW  -  DBD plasma
KW  -  antimicrobial packaging
KW  -  zein
KW  -  thymol
KW  -  release kinetics

DO  - 10.7569/JRM.2013.634129