Rheological and structural properties of chitosan/starch film addeddifferent plasticizers

Packaging is used to disconnect from the external environment to ensure food quality and extend shelf life. However, excessive use of petroleum-based packaging materials harms the ecological life due to environmental pollution and low biodegradability. Instead, edible films have been used as environmentally friendly materials. In this way, it has become an important point in the field of food packaging. There is a huge demand for chitosan among biomaterials. The importance of chitosan increases with its reliability, cheapness and high film forming capacity. Chitosan is a linear polysaccharide obtained by the deacitation of chitin. The presence of hydrophilic groups shows the tendency for water absorption, poor water vapor and barrier properties. Being a cheap by-product of ethanol production, zein contains highly non-polar amino acid residues. Therefore, it has fine solubility in alcohol and high hydrophobic properties. The mechanical properties of the zein film alone are not very good. Therefore, better properties can be obtained by mixing chitosan and zein. In order to increase flexibility and processability, thanks to films that can be added with plasticizer, the intermolecular forces between the polymer chains can be weakened and new hydrogen bonds can be formed with the polymer. The rheological behavior of the film-forming solution can affect the thickness. The aim of the study is to obtain the structural properties of physico-mechanical and plasticized mixture films on rheological properties and to provide their use as potential packaging material.