Gas barrier and optical properties of cellulose nanofiber coatings with dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles

Bilayer membranes for food packaging applications were prepared by depositing on polylactic acid (PLA) substrates pure cellulose nanofibers' (CNF) coatings and nanocomposite coatings made of CNF with dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles. The gas barrier properties of the bilayer membranes were studied by gas phase permeation technique using CO2, N2, D2, He and ambient air as test gases. Few micrometer thick pure and nanocomposite CNF coatings act as effective gas permeation barriers impeding the CO2, N2 and O2 transport and reducing the He and D2 transport rates by 3 orders of magnitude when compared with the PLA substrate. Gas transport through the coatings obeys the solution-diffusion mechanism: D2 permeation process shows activation energy values of 44 ± 6 kJ/mol and 40 ± 6 kJ/mol in the pure and nanocomposite CNF coating, respectively. The addition of the TiO2 nanoparticles reduces the penetrant diffusivity by increasing the tortuosity of the penetrant migration path but does not affect the gas barrier performances. UV–Vis spectroscopy analyses show that the optical transparency of the PLA support is slightly decreased by the CNF coating: at 600 nm the optical transmittance decreases, in fact, from 95% to 91%. TiO2 nanoparticles strongly absorb UV radiation and slightly reduce the PLA transparency in the optical range due to light scattering effects.