Investigation on coating of paper with biodegradable polymers and Zinc Oxide nanoparticles on its mechanical and barrier properties

This research has been carried out to determine the effects of coating of paper with biodegradable polymers and zinc oxide nanoparticles on its mechanical and barrier properties. Zinc oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by solid-state reaction method and where characterized and analyzed by XRD, SEM and TEM techniques. The results showed that the zinc oxide nanoparticles had a suitable and relatively uniform granulation and had Wurtzite hexagonal morphology. Biodegradable polymers of polyvinyl alcohol, carboxymethylcellulose, starch and a mixture of them with and without zinc dioxide nanoparticles were used to coat the paper at a gramage of 20 g / m2. Barrier properties of coated paper such as air permeability (Gurley), water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR) were measured. The results showed that coating the paper with polymer and zinc oxide nanoparticles improved the barrier properties. The mechanical properties of the samples were investigated by performing static tensile and burst resistance test. The results showed that the mechanical properties of the samples increased due to the coating, so that the treatment of a mixture of polyvinyl alcohol, carboxymethylcellulose and starch with zinc oxide nanoparticles had the highest results.