Plastic packaging effectively protects food from mechanical, microbial, and chemical damage, but oxygen can still permeate these plastics, degrading the food. Traditional methods to improve gas barriers involve metallic or halogenated polymeric coatings, which raise environmental concerns and block visible light and electromagnetic signals. This paper presents a new design for a highly flexible, visible light and radio frequency transparent coating on commercial poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film. By using spray-assisted layer-by-layer assembly, negatively charged cellulose nanofibers and positively charged chitin nanowhiskers are nanoscale blended. The resulting flexible film shows superior barrier characteristics, with an oxygen transmission rate below 0.5 mL m–2 day–1, maintaining its performance even under bending stress and hydration. This “crab-on-a-tree” nanocoating reduces the haziness of PET with minimal transparency loss and effectively inhibits bacterial growth. This innovative coating offers significant potential for biorenewable, optical, and radio frequency transparent packaging applications.-Scientific Journal cover design by scapiens
[Scientific Journal cover design] Low-Thermal-Budget Fluorite-Structure Ferroelectrics for Future Electronic Device Applications
In article number 2100028, Jiyoung Kim, Si Joon Kim, and their team review key factors involved in developing fluorite-structure ferroelectrics
