Browsing by Author "Egodage, DP"

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item: Conference-Abstract
Novel antimicrobial nano coated polypropylene based materials for food packaging systems
(2017) Egodage, DP; Jayalath, HTS; Samarasekara, AMPB; Amarasinghe, DAS; Madushani, SPA; Senerath, SMNS
Modern days, in food industry significant attention has paid to secure food quality, safety and shelf-life. Microbial growth is the major cause of food spoilage which reduces shelf life of food. Food packaging plays a major role in preserving food and maintaining the quality. Food packaging combines with antimicrobial activities are now in demand in food industry due to growing concerns on food quality. As some inorganic nano materials show extensive antimicrobial activity incorporation of them into food packaging exhibit enhanced food quality. These studies have been focused on establishing methods for preparation of antibacterial nano coating for polymer based food packaging. Nanosilver has widely been used in antimicrobial films. For this study nanosilver based polyvinyl alchol coating was prepared on polypropylene food packaging material. Ultra Violet rays were used to contact on the polymer surface in order to enhance the adherence of nano coating to the polypropylene surface. Load required to peel off the nano coating and wetting angles of the modified surface was measured to determine the optimum Ultra Violet rays exposure time. Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) was used to optimize the crosslinking of the Coating. Presence of nanosilver particles in the developed coating was confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The coating was tested against Escherichia coli. The novel nanosilver coated polypropylene food packaging showed significant the antibacterial activity. This developed antimicrobial product can be used to protect the food and reduce the waste in near future.
item: Conference-Abstract
Preparation of nano silver based anti-bacterial coating for food packaging applications
Egodage, DP; Jayalath, HTS; Samarasekara, AMPB; Amarasinghe, DAS
Food packaging plays an important role in preserving food throughout the distribution chain. Food packaging can delay food deterioration, keep the favourable properties of food processing, increase the shelf life or the usable time of the food while keeping the quality and the security of food. To maintain product quality and freshness of the food attentive selection of packaging materials and technologies should be done. The conventional food packaging used in food packaging industry are glass, metals like aluminium and tin, paper and plastics. Plastics used for food packaging can be found in wide variety with the forms of rigid or flexible. Due to design flexibility of plastics they can be formed into various structural shapes. The main two important properties of plastics are heat seal-ability and printability which can be integrated in line with the process of filling food. Variable permeability to light, gas and vapour and lack of anti-bacterial activity of the packaging applications are main drawbacks of plastics. Nowadays Nano sized particles which are in between 1-100 nm in diameter become an area of intense scientific attract due to its wide range of applications in packaging, medical, optical and electronic industries. Nano particles of metals like silver and gold disclose significantly distinct properties compared to bulk properties. The objective of this research was to prepare nano silver based anti-bacterial coating for polypropylene based food packaging applications. In this research, Ag/PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol) solution was prepared by in situ reduction method, in which silver nitrate and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) acted as a precursor and a capping agent. AgNPs formation was tested with UV Spectrometer. Ag/PVA was cross-linked with citric acid and coated on UV treated polypropylene sheets to make a film. Prepared samples were tested for anti-bacterial activities. Nano silver coated polypropylene samples showed enhanced anti-bacterial effect. Therefore, this technique can be developed to apply in various food packaging applications to extend the shelf life.
item: Conference-Full-text
Study on thermal endurance of plasticizer in locally manufactured electrical cable insulation
(IEEE, 2022-07) Egodage, DP; Dodampola, R; Ratnakumar, A; Weragoda, SC; Amarasinghe, DAS; Samarasekara, AMPB; Attygalle, D; Rathnayake, M; Adhikariwatte, V; Hemachandra, K
Electrical cables are collections of one or more electrical conductors, which are separately insulated and covered together using a sheathing material. Since air does not perform well as a good insulation material, an insulation material is also introduced to resist the passing of electrical current in the radial direction. This will prevent electrical leakage and protect the stability of wire material by concealing it from environmental attacks such as heat and humidity. This paper analyzes the kinetics of the thermal endurance of plasticizers present in locally available electrical cable insulations. For this purpose, a model was developed to map higher temperature accelerated plasticizer evaporation kinetics to lower temperature practically experiencing values. Plasticizer evaporation data were collected in the range of 80-160 °C. Since the plasticizer evaporation reaction occurs over the considered temperature range, notable physical transitions (e.g., crystallization or glass transition) were not observed within the mentioned temperature range. Therefore, The Arrhenius-principle-based approach was employed to map accelerated condition measurements to ambient condition evaporation. An Experimentally determined evaporation behavior was used to define the evaporation kinetics of plasticizers. It was observed that the rate constant of plasticizer evaporation increases with the increasing temperature.