Optimization of PVA/TiO2/MMT mixed matrix membrane for food packaging

Abstract Nanocomposite films performance parameters, including barrier and properties for packaging films, can be affected by variables such as the type and concentration of nanoparticles. In this investigation, Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanocomposite films were prepared by solution casting method with different combinations of Montmorillonite (MMT) platelets and Titanium Oxide (TiO2) spherical nanoparticles.A support vector machine (SVM) was implemented to study the thin nanocomposite films' behavior to changes in the independent variables. The SVM model predicted oxygen transmission rate (OTR), water vapor permeability (WVP|), Young ̓s Modulus (YM), ΔE, opacity, tensile strength (TS), and elongation at the breakpoint (EB) with an error of less than 6.43%. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) was applied to find the optimal nanoparticle concentration to achieve optimum film performance. Therefore, the results exhibited that the optimum film performance depends on the type and concentration of nanoparticles. Results show that the optimum loading of nanoparticles in this research should be between 0.5-1 wt% for TiO2 and 2.5–3.5 wt% for MMT.