Preparation and characterization of ZnO-deposited DBD plasma-treated PP packaging film with antibacterial activities

Zinc oxide (ZnO)-deposited polypropylene (PP) packaging film was prepared with the aid of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment. The surface hydrophilicity of PP film was found to increase after the DBD plasma treatment due to the presence of oxygen-containing functional groups on the DBD plasma-treated PP surface. Although the surface roughness of the DBD plasma-treated PP film gradually increased with increasing plasma treatment time, the DBD plasma treatment insignificantly affected the mechanical properties of the PP film. The DBD plasma treatment time was found to be optimized at 10 s. The DBD plasma-treated PP film was further immersed in an aqueous zinc nitrate (Zn(NO3)2) solution at different concentrations before being converted to ZnO particles with the use of a 2.5 M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution, followed by sonication. The highest amount of ZnO deposited on the DBD plasma-treated PP surface was about 0.26 wt.% at the optimum Zn(NO3)2 concentration of 0.5 M. The ZnO-deposited DBD plasma-treated PP film showed good antibacterial activities against gram-positive Staphylococcus auerus and gram-negative Escherichia coli.