Electrospinning of cinnamaldehyde in chitosan/poly(ε-caprolactone) hybrid nanofibers: the investigation of physicomechanical, structural, and antimicrobial properties for food biopackaging exploits

The development of antimicrobial electrospun nanofibrous mats is one of the most recent trends in the field of food biopackaging. Herein, novel antimicrobial fibrous mats consisting of blend electrospun chitosan (CS)/poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) embedded with cinnamaldehyde (CIN) were fabricated via an electrospinning approach and investigated. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) manifested that as-spun fibers were well-oriented with uniform diameters along their lengths. The physical interactions and hydrogen bonding between CS/PCL and CIN were verified by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. This novel hybrid mat demonstrated excellent mechanical strength of 11.7 ± 0.93 MPa (CS/CIN(10%)/PCL) and achieved good water vapor barrier (WVP) performance. In vitro release assay also revealed that most of CIN loaded fiber mats were remained (73.2-78.1%) after 96h, demonstrating their durability. Furthermore, the electrospun nanofibrous mats containing the highest amount of CIN (CS/CIN(10%)/PCL) exhibited distinctive antibacterial activity towards Gram-positive Listeria monocytogenes and Gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria. This study gives insights to design new fiber-based antimicrobial nanomaterials of interest in food packaging exploits.