Exploiting the nano-sized features of microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) for the development of controlled-release packaging.

Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) was used in this study to prepare films containing an active molecule, lysozyme, which is a natural antimicrobial agent. The main goal of this research was to assess the potential for exploiting the nano-sized dimension of cellulose fibrils to slow the release of the antimicrobial molecule, thus avoiding a too-quick release into the surrounding medium, which is a major disadvantage of most release systems. For this purpose, the release kinetics of lysozyme over a 10-day period in two different media (pure water and water/ethanol 10wt.%) were obtained, and the experimental data was fitted with a solution of Fick's second law to quantify the apparent diffusion coefficient (D). The results indicate that the MFC retained lysozyme, presumably due to electrostatic, hydrogen, and ion-dipole interactions, with the largest release of lysozyme-approximately 14%-occurring from the initial amount loaded on the films. As expected, ethanol as a co-solvent slightly decreased the diffusion of lysozyme from the MFC polymer network. The addition of two potential modulating release agents-glycerol and sodium chloride-was also evaluated. Findings from this work suggest that MFC-based films can be considered a suitable candidate for use in controlled-release packaging systems.