On the Use of the Electrospinning Coating Technique to Produce Antimicrobial Polyhydroxyalkanoate Materials Containing In Situ-Stabilized Silver Nanoparticles

Abstract

Electro-hydrodynamic processing, comprising electrospraying and electrospinning techniques, has emerged as a versatile technology to produce nanostructured fiber-based and particle-based materials. In this work, an antimicrobial active multilayer system comprising a commercial polyhydroxyalkanoate substrate (PHA) and an electrospun PHA coating containing in situ-stabilized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was successfully developed and characterized in terms of morphology, thermal, mechanical, and barrier properties. The obtained materials reduced the bacterial population of Salmonella enterica below the detection limits at very low silver loading of 0.002 ± 0.0005 wt %. As a result, this study provides an innovative route to generate fully renewable and biodegradable materials that could prevent microbial outbreaks in food packages and food contact surfaces.

Antimicrobial nanocomposites and electrospun coatings based on poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate) and copper oxide nanoparticles for active packaging and coating applications

“…The negligible impact of CuO on mechanical properties of the active films could be explained mainly by the low CuO loading and the high nanoparticles dispersion. These results were in line with the previous observations by Castro‐Mayorga et al . and Jeong et al .…”

“…In contrast, the addition of CuO within the coated structures led to a significant decrease in the melting enthalpy with regard to the neat PHBVs and their nanocomposites. This agrees with the results reported earlier by Castro‐Mayorga et al ., which ascribed the thermal behavior variations to the more homogeneous melting of the fibers due to the high surface to volume ratio of the electrospun materials as compared to a thicker continuous film. These results do not necessarily translate into crystallinity due to the differential behavior during melting of the materials and the crystallinity development observed during the DSC run.…”

Electrospun curcumin-loaded protein nanofiber mats as active/bioactive coatings for food packaging applications

“…Electrospun nanofibers present particular benefits for the production of food packaging coatings, such as higher crack resistance as compared to conventional films, absence of negative impact in the flexibility and mechanical properties of the packaging material to be coated and their good adhesion properties due to their large surface to volume ratio (Fabra, Busolo, Lopez-Rubio, & Lagaron, 2013). For these reasons, electrospinning has already been effectively used in the food packaging area to generate antimicrobial coatings (Castro-Mayorga et al, 2017), high barrier structures (Fabra, Busolo, et al, 2013;, adhesive interlayers , packaging materials with 86 temperature buffering capacity (Chalco-Sandoval et al, 2017;Chalco-Sandoval, Fabra, López-Rubio, & Lagaron, 2014) and, very recently, functionalized antioxidant coatings based on α-tocopherol (Dumitriu et al, 2017;Fabra et al, 2016).…”

Polymeric Nanocomposites and Nanocoatings for Food Packaging: A Review

“…Also, polylactic acid (PLA)/Silver-NP/Vitamin E bionanocomposite has been prepared by electrospinning and they showed a good antimicrobial activity against both gram positive and gram-negative bacteria [ 190 ]. As a result, this method provides an innovative route to generate fully renewable and biodegradable antimicrobial materials for food packages and food contact surfaces [ 191 ]. The choice of the manufacturing process depends on specific application requirements of the coating.…”