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Synergistic Antimicrobial Activities of Limonene with Mineral Carriers in LDPE Films for Active Packaging Application

Received: 23 January 2022    Accepted: 6 February 2022    Published: 9 March 2022
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Abstract

The integration of essential oils (EOs) into polymers to endow antimicrobial properties has received a lot of attention. EOs are remarkable in that they have broad antimicrobial activity from a natural source while also being volatile. Their volatility, on the other hand, makes high-temperature processing techniques difficult to incorporate into polymers. In this study, active films based on low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and limonene essential oil (LEO) were prepared and characterized. Before incorporation of LEO into LDPE, vacuum pulling method was used to load the LEO into five different mineral carriers. All Carrier-LEO complexes were added into LDPE using melt compounding. The goal is to analyze the potential use of these formulations to achieve prolonged antimicrobial film packaging. The halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), kaolinite (Kao), mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs), and molecular sieve type 4A (Z4A) were used as mineral carriers for limonene. The functional characterizations including mechanical, thermal, optical, barrier, and antimicrobial properties as well as limonene release behavior from the LDPE composite films were investigated. As expected, free limonene molecules acted as a plasticizer in the LDPE matrix. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed 20-25% of the initial limonene content was retained against thermal degradation in compounding and film making steps and its release from the films was efficiently delayed. A decrease in optical and oxygen barrier properties, as well as elastic modulus and tensile strength, was obtained for all developed films compared with neat LDPE. Significant antibacterial activities of the films were observed against Escherichia coli DH5-Alpha (E. coli) as a model gram-negative bacterial species. Moreover, the obtained results and the short-term and long-term release studies indicated that both HNTs and the MSNs due to their strong synergistic interactions with limonene exhibited sustained release profiles of limonene from LDPE films. Thus, these new active polymer composites present promising features in controlling microbial contamination, rendering them as excellent candidates in active packaging applications.

Published in Science Journal of Chemistry (Volume 10, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11
Page(s) 32-40
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Antimicrobial Properties, Limonene, Essential Oils, Antimicrobial Film Packaging, Mineral Carriers, LDPE, Melt Compounding

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    Mahdi Darvish, Abdellah Ajji. (2022). Synergistic Antimicrobial Activities of Limonene with Mineral Carriers in LDPE Films for Active Packaging Application. Science Journal of Chemistry, 10(2), 32-40. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11

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    Mahdi Darvish; Abdellah Ajji. Synergistic Antimicrobial Activities of Limonene with Mineral Carriers in LDPE Films for Active Packaging Application. Sci. J. Chem. 2022, 10(2), 32-40. doi: 10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11

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    AMA Style

    Mahdi Darvish, Abdellah Ajji. Synergistic Antimicrobial Activities of Limonene with Mineral Carriers in LDPE Films for Active Packaging Application. Sci J Chem. 2022;10(2):32-40. doi: 10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11,
      author = {Mahdi Darvish and Abdellah Ajji},
      title = {Synergistic Antimicrobial Activities of Limonene with Mineral Carriers in LDPE Films for Active Packaging Application},
      journal = {Science Journal of Chemistry},
      volume = {10},
      number = {2},
      pages = {32-40},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjc.20221002.11},
      abstract = {The integration of essential oils (EOs) into polymers to endow antimicrobial properties has received a lot of attention. EOs are remarkable in that they have broad antimicrobial activity from a natural source while also being volatile. Their volatility, on the other hand, makes high-temperature processing techniques difficult to incorporate into polymers. In this study, active films based on low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and limonene essential oil (LEO) were prepared and characterized. Before incorporation of LEO into LDPE, vacuum pulling method was used to load the LEO into five different mineral carriers. All Carrier-LEO complexes were added into LDPE using melt compounding. The goal is to analyze the potential use of these formulations to achieve prolonged antimicrobial film packaging. The halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), kaolinite (Kao), mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs), and molecular sieve type 4A (Z4A) were used as mineral carriers for limonene. The functional characterizations including mechanical, thermal, optical, barrier, and antimicrobial properties as well as limonene release behavior from the LDPE composite films were investigated. As expected, free limonene molecules acted as a plasticizer in the LDPE matrix. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed 20-25% of the initial limonene content was retained against thermal degradation in compounding and film making steps and its release from the films was efficiently delayed. A decrease in optical and oxygen barrier properties, as well as elastic modulus and tensile strength, was obtained for all developed films compared with neat LDPE. Significant antibacterial activities of the films were observed against Escherichia coli DH5-Alpha (E. coli) as a model gram-negative bacterial species. Moreover, the obtained results and the short-term and long-term release studies indicated that both HNTs and the MSNs due to their strong synergistic interactions with limonene exhibited sustained release profiles of limonene from LDPE films. Thus, these new active polymer composites present promising features in controlling microbial contamination, rendering them as excellent candidates in active packaging applications.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Synergistic Antimicrobial Activities of Limonene with Mineral Carriers in LDPE Films for Active Packaging Application
    AU  - Mahdi Darvish
    AU  - Abdellah Ajji
    Y1  - 2022/03/09
    PY  - 2022
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11
    T2  - Science Journal of Chemistry
    JF  - Science Journal of Chemistry
    JO  - Science Journal of Chemistry
    SP  - 32
    EP  - 40
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-099X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjc.20221002.11
    AB  - The integration of essential oils (EOs) into polymers to endow antimicrobial properties has received a lot of attention. EOs are remarkable in that they have broad antimicrobial activity from a natural source while also being volatile. Their volatility, on the other hand, makes high-temperature processing techniques difficult to incorporate into polymers. In this study, active films based on low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and limonene essential oil (LEO) were prepared and characterized. Before incorporation of LEO into LDPE, vacuum pulling method was used to load the LEO into five different mineral carriers. All Carrier-LEO complexes were added into LDPE using melt compounding. The goal is to analyze the potential use of these formulations to achieve prolonged antimicrobial film packaging. The halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), kaolinite (Kao), mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs), and molecular sieve type 4A (Z4A) were used as mineral carriers for limonene. The functional characterizations including mechanical, thermal, optical, barrier, and antimicrobial properties as well as limonene release behavior from the LDPE composite films were investigated. As expected, free limonene molecules acted as a plasticizer in the LDPE matrix. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed 20-25% of the initial limonene content was retained against thermal degradation in compounding and film making steps and its release from the films was efficiently delayed. A decrease in optical and oxygen barrier properties, as well as elastic modulus and tensile strength, was obtained for all developed films compared with neat LDPE. Significant antibacterial activities of the films were observed against Escherichia coli DH5-Alpha (E. coli) as a model gram-negative bacterial species. Moreover, the obtained results and the short-term and long-term release studies indicated that both HNTs and the MSNs due to their strong synergistic interactions with limonene exhibited sustained release profiles of limonene from LDPE films. Thus, these new active polymer composites present promising features in controlling microbial contamination, rendering them as excellent candidates in active packaging applications.
    VL  - 10
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Chemical Engineering, Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, Canada

  • Department of Chemical Engineering, Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, Canada

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