Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) and ZnO-silver (ZnO-Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used in different fields, such as biomedicine and food packaging, due to their recognized antibacterial activity and safety for human health. In this paper, ZnO and ZnO-Ag NPs were incorporated into poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), in two contents (0.5 and 1 wt%), to prepare antibacterial films. The NPs were characterized by TEM and FT-Raman, and the films were analyzed by FT-Raman and FTIR, mechanical properties, SEM–EDS, TGA, DSC, XRD, and antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli. The results indicate that both NPs were physically retained in the polymer structure, with a strong electrostatic interaction between the mixture components, reflecting excellent mechanical behavior. The films showed good thermal stability, without significant changes, and the nanocomposites enhanced PBAT crystallinity from 18 to 23% and 27% for PBAT-ZnO and PBAT-ZnO-Ag films, respectively. The mechanical, thermal, and crystallinity results indicated the excellent potential of NPs in biodegradable films to improve properties and expand applicability. The antimicrobial activity is higher for PBAT-ZnO-Ag films than the pristine PBAT due to the synergic effect between the NPs and the oxidation–reduction potential of each nanoparticle, where the ZnO protect and stabilized the Ag-NPs, acting as an Ag-carrier, enhancing its antimicrobial effects after the film’s preparation and allowing its applicability in biomedical products or food packaging.

Graphic abstract

中文翻译：

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ZnO纳米粒子作为Ag载体在PBAT抗菌膜中的作用

摘要

氧化锌（ZnO）和ZnO-银（ZnO-Ag）纳米颗粒（NPs）由于其公认的抗菌活性和对人体健康的安全性而广泛用于生物医学和食品包装等不同领域。本文将ZnO和ZnO-Ag NPs以两种含量（0.5和1 wt％）掺入聚己二酸丁二酯-对苯二甲酸丁二醇酯（PBAT）中，以制备抗菌膜。通过TEM和FT-Raman对NPs进行表征，并通过FT-Raman和FTIR，机械性能，SEM-EDS，TGA，DSC，XRD和对大肠杆菌的抗菌性能对薄膜进行分析。结果表明，两种NP都物理保留在聚合物结构中，混合物组分之间具有很强的静电相互作用，反映出优异的机械性能。该膜表现出良好的热稳定性，没有显着变化，并且纳米复合材料将PBAT-ZnO和PBAT-ZnO-Ag膜的PBAT结晶度分别提高了18％至23％和27％。机械，热和结晶度结果表明，NPs在可生物降解薄膜中具有改善性能和扩展适用性的巨大潜力。由于NP之间的协同作用和每个纳米颗粒的氧化还原电位，PBAT-ZnO-Ag膜的抗菌活性高于原始PBAT，其中ZnO保护并稳定了Ag-NP，充当Ag-载体，

图形摘要