Development of blown polylactic acid-MgO nanocomposite films for food packaging

Hitherto the unreported development of blown PLA/MgO nanocomposite (NC) food packaging films, employing an industrial level melt-processing setup is presented. 5 wt% reinforced PLA/MgO NC extrudates are prepared at first, to assess the feasibility of production of large quantity of blown films by the extrusion method. Based on successful outcomes of the preliminary trials, up to 3 wt% PLA/MgO NC films are eventually prepared for testing and characterization of key mechanical, barrier, optical, thermal and anti-bacterial properties. The tensile strength and plasticity are found to improved by nearly 22% and 146% respectively for the 2 wt% MgO reinforced films. The oxygen and water vapour barrier properties improve by nearly 65% and 57% respectively for the 1% formulation. For the 1 wt% NC films around 44% E. coli bacteria are killed after 24 h treatment. Overall, this research establishes the successful production of large scale, sustainable, blown PLA/MgO NC food packaging films.