Physical and Barrier Properties of Polylactic Acid/Halloysite Nanotubes-Titanium Dioxide Nanocomposites

Abstract

In this study, PLA/TiO2 and PLA/HNTs-TiO2 nanocomposites films were fabricated via solution casting method. By testing the film density, solubility, water contact angle and water vapor permeability, the PLA nanocomposite films, the comprehensive performances of the nanocomposites were analysed. The outcomes demonstrated that maximum film density of PLA/TiO2 and PLA/HNTs-TiO2 nanocomposites films increased gradually with the increasing of nanofiller loadings. Moreover, the incorporation of TiO2 and HNTs-TiO2 significantly decreased the water vapor transmittance rate of the nanocomposite films with a slight priority to the addition of HNTs-TiO2, the water solubility was significantly improved with the addition of both nanofillers. Furthermore, the barrier properties were developed with the addition of both TiO2 and HNTs-TiO2 especially after the addition of low nanofiller loadings. Overall, the performance of the PLA/HNTs-TiO2 nanocomposite films was better than that PLA/TiO2 film. Nevertheless, both of the PLA nanocomposite samples achieved the requests of food packaging applications.