Chitosan-caseinate bilayer coatings for paper packaging materials

Papers coated with caseinate and caseinate/chitosan bilayer films were developed. Caseinate, chitosan and caseinate/chitosan films were preliminary characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and thermal stability analyses. The effects of coating weight, caseinate concentration (7%, 10%, and 12%, w/w), and coating application methods (single layer and bilayer) on the physical and mechanical properties of coated papers were studied. Increasing the concentration of caseinate led to a decrease in water vapor permeability (WVP) of the resulting coated paper sheets. Chitosan significantly (p < 0.05) increased the elongation at break (%E) of coated paper. However, the application of chitosan as a second layer on wet or dry caseinate films did not significantly affect (p > 0.05) the tensile strength (TS) of coated paper. The greatest reduction in paper WVP is achieved by addition of a chitosan layer to the dried preformed caseinate-coated paper.