Polyvinyl alcohol/cellulose nanocrystals incorporated with apple waste-derived carbon dots as an excellent UV food packaging material

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation has significantly reduced food quality. With the increase in UV radiation to Earth due to ozone layer depletion, the need for eco-friendly UV-blocking food packaging materials is becoming very important. This work synthesized carbon dots (CD) from apple waste and then incorporated them into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) to develop UV-blocking packaging materials. The CD was even distributed and highly compatible with the PVA/CNC matrix (5 wt of CNC) to form a compact and continuous film without defects. In particular, the UV-blocking ability of PVA/CNC/CD was substantially improved. PVA/CNC/CD 1 (1 wt of CD) exhibits excellent UV-blocking ability, which can block about 78.2 of UVA and 91 of UVB. The UV protection factor of this composite was 5.9 times higher than that of PVA/CNC. In addition, the prepared composite films keep high transparency with over 70 transmittance of visible light at 660 nm. The potential use of developed composites as UV-blocking packaging materials was demonstrated by lab-scale packaging tests with cherry tomatoes. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd