Preparation and Characterization of Chitosan and Ethylene Glycol Based Chitosan Films

Abstract

Environmental concerns associated with packaging materials opened a new challenging research domain for the researchers to investigate the new materials, which could minimize the raised issues and provide a better shelf life to the products. In this regard, natural polymers such as Chitosan has been blended with numerous materials for the development of packaging films. Knowledge of physiochemical properties of new films is essential before using them for packaging. In the present work, Chitosan films are produced using different Ethylene Glycol based solvents. Further, these blended films are characterized in terms of FTIR, TGA, DSC, FESEM, and EDX analysis. The addition of different Ethylene Glycol with the Chitosan shifted the peaks, changed their thermal and endo/exothermic profiles. The images revealed the micro-sized films with better surfaces, which could be good as packaging material.