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Today, plastic waste has been highlighted as one of the greatest threats to the environment. These environmental concerns and the increased necessity for safe food packaging have inspired scientists to focus on the development of active biodegradable materials. Herein, a novel poly(vinyl alcohol)/pluronic/ZnO nanocomposite film (PVA/PLUR/ZnO) is introduced as an active packaging material with enhanced antimicrobial activity. Gamma irradiation is used as a “green” route to prepare ZnO nanoparticles via a polymer pyrolysis method. The as‐prepared ecofriendly ZnO nanoparticles are characterized and incorporated into the PVA/PLUR matrix in different concentrations. Transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering measurements prove that ZnO nanoparticles have a mean particle size of 30 nm with a spherical‐like morphology. Morphological and structural characterization confirm the successful incorporation of ZnO into the PVA/PLUR matrix, which in turn enhances the thermal and barrier properties of PVA/PLUR/ZnO nanocomposite films. On the other hand, the opacity of blends is increased. The PVA/PLUR/ZnO composites exhibit broad‐spectrum antimicrobial activity against Gram‐positive, Gram‐negative bacterial pathogens, and fungi, and the activity increases with increasing concentrations of ZnO nanoparticles. These results introduce PVA/PLUR/ZnO films as effective antimicrobial materials for active food‐packaging applications.

Poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):Polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is a dispersion used as a buffer layer on the ITO electrode in the organic solar cells. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are incorporated to the dispersion using two different strategies. The first is by reduction of silver ions in the PEDOT:PSS dispersion. Chemical reduction of silver ions using sodium borohydried is compared with reduction using gamma radiation. The TEM and UV-visible spectra indicates that smaller Ag NPs are obtained for the chemical reduction method than those obtained from the radiochemical. The second strategy, is by preparing Ag NPs in polyvinyl pyrolidone (PVP) solution using gamma irradiation then adding them to the PEDOT:PSS dispersion. Layers of the PEDOT:PSS incorporated different concentrations of Ag NPs (1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10%) are formed. The SEM and AFM studies of the layers morphology reveal that smooth morphology on the obtained for layers containing Ag NPs up to concentrations of 4%.

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