Electrospinning of nanofibers: Potentials and perspectives for active food packaging

Abstract

Electrospun nanofibers with structural and functional advantages have drawn much attention due to their potential applications for active food packaging. The traditional role of food packaging is just storage containers for food products. The changes of retailing practice and consumer demand promote the development of active packaging to improve the safety, quality, and shelf life of the packaged foods. To develop the technique of electrospinning for active food packaging, electrospun nanofibers have been covalently or non‐covalently functionalized for loading diverse bioactive compounds including antimicrobial agents, antioxidant agents, oxygen scavengers, carbon dioxide emitters, and ethylene scavengers. The aim of this review is to present a concise but comprehensive summary on the progress of electrospinning techniques for active food packaging. Emphasis is placed on the tunability of the electrospinning technique, which achieves the modification of fiber composition, orientation, and architecture. Efforts are also made to provide functionalized strategies of electrospun polymeric nanofibers for food packaging application. Furthermore, the existing limitations and prospects for developing electrospinning in food packaging area are discussed.

Application of electrospinning technique in development of intelligent food packaging: A short review of recent trends

“…This is feasible by changing the traits of the operating, solution, and ambient conditions of the procedure. It is likely to handle the diameter of nanofibers as well, playing an indispensable role in the functional characteristics of the substances utilized in several applications (Zhang, Li, Wang, & Zhang, 2020a). Furthermore, nanofibers can be achieved in diverse forms such as hollow, core‐shell, and porous nanofibers.…”

“…Despite these benefits, low throughput of electrospinning and the difficulty of processing in conventional equipment (due to high rigidity of biopolymers) and the low barrier property to moisture and oxygen (due to hydrophilicity biopolymers) has restricted industrial applications of electrospinning in packaging (Ding et al., 2019; Zhang, Li, Wang, & Zhang, 2020b). Also, because of the biodegradable nature of biopolymers used in food technologies, there is a lack of feasibility for a longer use or even a reuse of the electrospun biopolymer materials.…”

Aggressive Impacts Affecting the Biodegradable Ultrathin Fibers Based on Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate), Polylactide and Their Blends: Water Sorption, Hydrolysis and Ozonolysis

“…These medical devices promote and control the growth of cells, tissues, and organs as well as provide the targeted controlled delivery of the wide spectrum of bioactive compounds [ 8 , 9 ]. Along with environmentally friendly, biodegradable barrier films [ 10 , 11 ], biopolymer ultrathin fibers are beginning to be used for the transition from passive conventional packaging to active smart packaging, which is devoted to the enhancement of food’s shelf-life [ 12 , 13 ]. Another area of electrospun fiber application—no less important than the previous ones—is the efficient elimination of disastrous anthropogenic consequences resulting from both local and global spill accidents [ 14 ].…”

Fabrication of superhydrophobic and self cleaningPVA‐silicafiber coating on304L SSsurfaces by electrospinning

“…Zhang et al 21 fabricated polycaprolactone membranes by electrodeposition and later added methyl silicone oil and hydrophobic nanoparticles to obtain a water contact angle of 151.6 ± 1.7 and a sliding angle of 7.4 ± 1.2 . A good number of reviews are also available on various aspects of ES, such as polymer nanofibers, 22 methods and applications, 23 biopolymer nanofibers, 24 tunable wettability of electrospun mats, 25 fabrication of membranes for water treatment applications, 26 electrospun nanofibers for food packaging, 27 optical sensors, 28 biosensors, 29 and so on. Recently, Prabu and Bhaarathi 30 reported on the novel multipin electrospinning system for encapsulation of nanoparticles into nanofibers which clearly shows that electrospinning remains as an interesting field of research over the past six decades after Formhals patented the primitive electrospinning system in 1939.…”