Effects of montmorillonite on properties of methyl cellulose/carvacrol based active antimicrobial nanocomposites

The effect of montmorillonite and carvacrol (as an antimicrobial agent) on the wettability, mechanical, gas barrier, thermal and color properties of methyl cellulose-based nanocomposite films was investigated. To make a comparison among the film samples, methyl cellulose (MC) film and methyl cellulose/montmorillonite (MC/MMT) and methyl cellulose/carvacrol/montmorillonite (MC/CRV/MMT) nanocomposite films with different clay concentration were prepared. The interactions among MMT, CRV and film matrix were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy. The contact angle value of MC film showed an increase of 2.5 fold with the incorporation of 60wt.% MMT into the film matrix. The addition of clay into the film matrix increased the melting point of MC film and improved the mechanical properties of film material. The tensile stress of pure MC film exhibited an increase of 9.2MPa in the presence of 60wt.% MMT. With the addition of MMT into the film matrixes, water vapor permeability values of MC film and MC/CRV film were decreased by 28% and 13%, respectively. The incorporation of 60wt.% MMT into the film matrix caused to a decrease of 47 fold for MC film and 16 fold for MC/CRV film in the oxygen permeability of film sample. The addition of CRV into MC film and MC/MMT nanocomposite films with different clay concentration reduced the mechanical strengths of film materials. Oxygen permeability values of MC film and MC/MMT nanocomposite films decreased with the inclusion of CRV into the film matrix.