Rheological and anti-microbial study of silica and silver nanoparticles-reinforced k-carrageenan/hydroxyethyl cellulose composites for food packaging applications

Sustainable food packaging films were developed using a combination of k-Carrageenan (k-C), hydroxyl ethyl cellulose (HEC), silicon dioxide (SiO2), and silver (Ag) nanoparticles. The CH-SiO2/Ag nanocomposites showed promising results, mainly due to their transparency, flexibility, low cost, environmental friendliness. structure uniform morphology the determined by FT-IR, XRD, SEM analysis. Barrier properties (water vapor permeability-WVP), thermal (T5% loss, char yield), mechanical for k-C/HEC k-C/HEC-SiO2/Ag nanocomposites, which improved 3.3–1.9 × 10?9 gm/m2 Pa s (WVP), 59.1–115.7 °C (T5%), 13.4–29.3% (char 23.8–41.5 MPa (tensile strength), 22.3–28.9 (EB), respectively. contact angle in range 60.1°–76.4°. UV transmittance composites decreased with addition SiO2 Ag However, transparency was not affected, it inhibited UVA UVB rays viscosity increased content shear rate. All exhibited shear-thinning behavior. storage modulus prepared is higher than loss entire frequency region. Overall, nanoparticles hydrophobic nature significant activity against six common pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, subtilis, Salmonella typhi, Cronobacter sakazakii. synergistic nanocomposite has potential candidate other biomedical applications.