The Study of The mechanical, Thermal and Antibacterial Properties of PLA/ Chitosan/TiO2 nanocomposite film

The purpose of this study is the improvement of the mechanical, thermal, and anti-bacterial properties of the Polylactic Acid (PLA)/Chitosan films by adding the Titanium Oxide nanoparticles. The titanium oxide nanoparticles in content of 1, 3, and 5 wt.% were added into PLA/Chitosan matrix. Tensile test for determining the tensile strength, elastic modulus and elongation, Differential Scanning Calorimetry test for evaluating the thermal properties of the samples, and anti-bacterial test for determining the anti-bacterial behavior of the polymer samples were done. The Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM) mages were taken to investigate the morphology and nanoparticles dispersion in the polymer matrix. The SEM images showed that the nanoparticles were dispersed in the matrix homogenously. The tensile test showed that the nanoparticles in content of 3 wt.% improved the tensile strength and elastic modulus significantly. DSC test showed that the addition of the titanium oxide nanoparticles into PLA/Chitosan increases the crystalline temperature and degree of crystallinity. The nanoparticles improved the anti-bacterial properties of the PLA/Chitosan matrix.