Superhydrophobic and ethylene scavenging paper doped with halloysite nanotubes for food packaging applications

Paper-based food packaging materials have gained great interests along with increasing environmental concern and fossil energy crisis. Inspired by strong adhesion of marine mussels, we proposed a simple and facile method to prepare a durable paper-based packaging material in combination of superhydrophobicity and ethylene scavenging capability, which is first surface decoration of polydopamine (PDA) on paper surface followed by immersion into mixture solution containing halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and stearic acid (SA). The PDMS/SA/HNTs@PDA-coated paper with a WCA of 157.5° exhibited excellent anti-fouling, self-cleaning and potential application in liquid food packaging. The obtained functional paper not only presented improved mechanical, barrier properties and outstanding anti-bacterial adhesion, but also could effectively extend shelf-life of cherry tomatoes under ambient conditions. After suffering from various rigorous treatments, the resultant multifunctional paper still exhibited excellent superhydrophobic durability. This study provided a new insight into fabrication of multifunctional paper-based materials for food packaging applications.