Physical and Barrier Properties of Polylactic Acid/Halloysite Nanotubes-Titanium Dioxide Nanocomposites

In this study, PLA/TiO 2 and PLA/HNTs-TiO 2 nanocomposites films were fabricated via solution casting method. By testing the film density, solubility, water contact angle and water vapor permeability, the PLA nanocomposite films, the comprehensive performances of the nanocomposites were analysed. The outcomes demonstrated that maximum film density of PLA/TiO 2 and PLA/HNTs-TiO 2 nanocomposites films increased gradually with the increasing of nanofiller loadings. Moreover, the incorporation of TiO 2 and HNTs-TiO 2 significantly decreased the water vapor transmittance rate of the nanocomposite films with a slight priority to the addition of HNTs-TiO 2 , the water solubility was significantly improved with the addition of both nanofillers. Furthermore, the barrier properties were developed with the addition of both TiO 2 and HNTs-TiO 2 especially after the addition of low nanofiller loadings. Overall, the performance of the PLA/HNTs-TiO 2 nanocomposite films was better than that PLA/TiO 2 film. Nevertheless, both of the PLA nanocomposite samples achieved the requests of food packaging applications.