Copper Gelled Chitosan: a Promising Material for Packaging Applications

Wahba, Marwa; Awad, Ghada

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2024.257256.9015

Copper Gelled Chitosan: a Promising Material for Packaging Applications

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Marwa Wahba ¹
Ghada Awad ²

¹ Department of chemistry of natural and microbial products, national research centre, egypt

² Pharmaceutical and Drug Industries Research division

10.21608/ejchem.2024.257256.9015

Abstract

Both copper (Cu) and chitosan (CSN) are known for their antimicrobial traits. Hence, copper gelled chitosan (Cu-G-CSN) films were prepared in order to be utilized in packaging applications. Initially, the CSN solution was frozen and then the gelling Cu solution was placed over it. The slow diffusion of Cu into the solid frozen CSN would slow the rate of the Cu induced CSN gelation. Slow gelation was formerly shown to create more mechanically stable gels that exhibit more homogeneity. The homogeneity of the newly formed Cu-G-CSN elevated its barrier traits against water diffusion and inhibited the films swelling. Actually, no swelling and no significant weight alterations (p value>0.05) were observed in the Cu-G-CSN samples, which were gelled with 0.5-2% CuSO4, after their immersion in distilled water for 48h at 37°C. The Cu-G-CSN films also offered considerable mechanical stability where a 12.84±0.55MPa tensile strength and 31.86±3.05% elongation percent were recorded for the films gelled with 0.5% CuSO4. The newly formed Cu-G-CSN films were also characterized via UV-visible spectroscopic analysis and scan electron microscopy. Moreover, the antimicrobial traits of the Cu-G-CSN films were proven. All the tested Cu-G-CSN films exhibited antimicrobial activities against both Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. These antimicrobial activities increased gradually upon increasing the concentration of the CuSO4 in the gelling solution from 0.2 to 2%. The 2% CuSO4 gelled films induced inhibition zones of 40 and 40.5 mm in case of S. aureus and C. albicans, respectively.

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