Bionanocomposites And Their Application In Food Packaging

Nanotechnology has emerged as an interesting field of research and development since its introduction in 1959 by Richard Feynman.

- Mr. Shivaprasad D.p And Dr. Neetu Kumra Taneja

The field of Nanotechnology deals with synthesis and characterization of materials in the size ranging from 1- 100nm referred to as nanomaterials that include nanoparticles, nanofibres and nanotubes, and nanocomposites. Nanomaterials by virtue of their small size, exhibit unique physicochemical properties that influence their biological interactions and movement across barrier surfaces and offer huge array of applications in the area of food, environment and medical industry.

• Nanoparticles: are small sized nanomaterials with each particle size with diameter < 100 nm.

• Nanofibres: are a sub-class of nanoparticles (includes nanotubes) which have two dimensions <100 nm but the third (axial) dimension can be much larger in size.

• Nanocomposites: are a multi-phased structures in which at least one of the phases has at least one dimension in the nanoscale (i.e <1-100 nm). Natural compounds or polymers are incorporated as the other phase to make it bio-nanocomposites with nature like properties. Often metal ions are incorporated into them to impart antimicrobial properties. Bionanocomposites have the advantage of being more resilient, stable, adaptive and multifunctional offering huge array of interdisciplinary industrial applications especially in food packaging.