WATER SORPTION PROPERTIES AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTION OF ZINC OXIDE NANO PARTICLES LOADED SAGO STARCH FILM

Abstract

In this work, sago starch based films have been loaded with ZnO nanoparticles prepared insitu via using an unique equilibration-cum-hydrothermal approach. The films have been characterized by XRD, DSC,SPR ,FTIR and SEM analysis. The moisture absorption behavior of plain and ZnO nanoparticles loaded films have been studied at 23, 31 and 37o C.The equilibrium moisture uptake data was found to fit well on GAB isotherm model and the monolayer sorption capacity Mo for the plain and ZnO nanoparticles loaded films was 0.089, 0.039 ,0.021 g/g and 0.042, 0.012, 0.007 g/g at 23,31 and 37 oC respectively. Moreover, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) for plain and ZnO nanoparticles loaded films at 23,31,37 oC were 11.19x10-4, 48.9x10-4, 62.1x10-4 and 3.73 x10-4, 6.21x10-4, 24.8x10-4 respectively. These films have shown excellent antibacterial action against model bacteria E.coli when investigated qualitatively by zone inhibition method. Films exhibit great potential to be used as packaging films to protect food stuff against microbial contaminents.