Open Access

ARTICLE

Effects of Cold Plasma on Surface, Thermal and Antimicrobial Release Properties of Chitosan Film

S.K. Pankaj¹, C. Bueno-Ferrer¹, N.N. Misra¹, L. O’Neill², Paula Bourke¹, P.J. Cullen^3*
1 BioPlasma Research Group, School of Food Science and Environmental Health, Dublin Institute of Technology, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
2 FOCAS Research Institute/School of Physics, Dublin Institute of Technology, Kevin Street, Dublin 8, Ireland
3 School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
*Corresponding author:

Journal of Renewable Materials 2017, 5(1), 14-20. https://doi.org/10.7569/JRM.2016.634105

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the effects of cold atmospheric air plasma treatment of antimicrobial chitosan film with different levels of thymol. Optical characterization of the dielectric barrier discharge showed the generation of reactive nitrogen and oxygen species by the system. A significant increase (p < 0.05) in the surface roughness was observed after cold plasma treatment of the films. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed in the thermal profile of the plasma-treated films. A significant increase (p < 0.05) in the thymol diffusion coefficient was observed after the plasma treatment for all the active films.

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Keywords

Cold plasma, DBD plasma, antimicrobial packaging, chitosan, thymol, release kinetics

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