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Updated: Oct 25, 2025

A Freeze-Thawing Method to Prepare Chitosan-Polyvinyl alcohol Hydrogels Without Crosslinking Agents and Diflunisal Release Studies
Published on: January 14, 2020
Antibacterial and clusteroluminogenic hypromellose-graft-chitosan-based polyelectrolyte complex films with high
Wing-Fu Lai1, Shuyang Zhao2, Jiachi Chiou3
1Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; School of Life and Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518172, China.
Abstract:
Food packaging can extend the shelf life of food products and enhance the safety and quality of the food. This study reports food-grade polyelectrolyte complex films generated via electrostatic interactions between two cellulose-based agents [viz., hypromellose-graft-chitosan, and carmellose sodium]. At optimal conditions, our films show good barrier properties, high transparency, and high efficiency in post-production agent loading. They also demonstrate intrinsic antibacterial effects against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. By using frozen chicken breasts as a model, the films enable real-time monitoring of the status of the frozen food due to the property of clusterisation-triggered emission. Along with their negligible toxicity, our films warrant further development as multi-functional films for effective and self-indicating food packaging.

