Preparation and synthesis of water-soluble chitosan derivative incorporated in ultrasonic-assistant wheat straw paper for antibacterial food-packaging

摘要

Ultrasonic-assistant wheat straw pulp (UWP) could be applied to produce food-packaging paper because of its superior strength and optical properties compared with traditional wheat straw pulp and aspen alkaline peroxide mechanical pulp. However, the poor antibacterial activity of UWP limits its wider applications in food packaging. In this study, water soluble 2-hydroxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride chitosan (HTACC) was synthesized using 2,3-epoxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (GTAMC) and created a bio-based coating as a layer on the paper, which consisted of UWP and softwood kraft pulp (SKP). The structure and thermal stability of the HTACC and the chitosan were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), thermal analysis (TG), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results obtained from those different characterizations confirmed that the HTACC was successfully prepared. Moreover, this work focused on studying the dependence of the paper barrier, the strength and the antibacterial properties on the composition of the pulps, the additives, and the HTACC. The test values of antibacterial food-packaging paper exceeded industry standards after a coating of 2 g/m(2) with a 1.2% HTACC solution.